Thalassophobia
Written for @ryu-no-joou again, poking fun at Modern AU’s John Marston and his perpetual fear of deep water, even if it’s in the form of a popular ocean-themed video game. (Subnautica)
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"I don't get why this kinda shit is so fun to you." John winced his eyes to barely slits, sinking further into his spinal column AND the fancy cushions of Chac's sofa. He looked like a dirty pile of rags wedged between the beautiful satin, a sour look on his young face.
"Shut your trap and play the damn thing, it's just a game!" SIrius barked at his adopted little bro, shoving at John's arm which sported a brand new tattoo covered in plastic film.
"Just a game he says, Just a game." John suffered, holding the PS4 Xbox controller in sweaty hands as he dove further down into the murky waters of Subnautica. "OH FUCK!" He hollers, ducking his head away from what appeared to be an adorable fish swimming across the screen-
"HAHA! Look at this goon, afraid of Finding Nemo over here." Sirius laughed, what appeared to be a visually stunning game somehow sending young Johnny into a tizzy with fear. "What, you gunna piss yourself if you see Sebastian the crab?"
"I think Sebastian was a lobster." Vorstag commented, his Disney memory on point with the amount of views his daughter had forced him to endure. Without a moment to waste another larger creature passed by the screen, Johnny instinctively dropping the controller with a clatter on the ground.
"ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT!" Johnny begged "You guys just want to watch me squeal like a dang stuck pig, you KNOW I'm scared of this game!"
"That's precisely why we're making you play it." Chac kicked his feet up and leaned into Teldryn, the man with his purple-cased phone ready to capture every moment of this torture. "You've only started, this is the baby area!!"
"Just dive in, give the crowd a show!" Sirius insists, shoving and shoving at Marston until he rudely obliged, nose-diving into the deep and mysterious depths on screen. Fuck it being just a game, who wouldn't hate the idea of a 360 degree world of complete darkness, complete unknown dangers? Ugh, but whatever, a game is a game.
John wouldn't give them what they wanted. Stalwart and building acid inside his stomach, he forged on. His look was grim, but he'd been through worse. So what the water got dark? So what Teldryn had spent so much money on these horribly accurate surround sound speakers? SO WHAT He was running out of oxygen?
"He's going to die."Chac commented as if speaking of the weather. Teldryn nodded joyously, watching young John be guided by his abusive friends towards certain doom.
A roar, a roar that came from what felt like everywhere at once. The subwoofers behind him rattled the very couch he sunk into- "WHAT! WHAT IS IT?!" John threw the controller again, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow. "YOU LOOK AND SEE WHAT THE FUCK IT IS!"
ROOOOARRR again, this time closer. Chac even had to hold his ears shut, a wicked smile curling up his cheeks, oh shit, here it comes. Sirius scrambled to pick up the controller and dropped it in John's lap, the man barely even looking in the flatscreen's general direction but soldiering on just the same-
“You're all dead, you hear me?” His voice was drowned out, nightmare-inducing music taking hold as this THING appeared on screen from afar, a black hellish shadow that came closer and closer!
“EEEEEUUUAACKKK!” John to everyone's surprise, reflexively dry-heaved in the presence of a sea monster consuming his player whole, John for the final time dropping the controller to the ground to stick his head between his knees- “EEEUURKK!” He hurled again, going pale as a ghost.
“HE'S YACKIN!” Chac hollered, tilting his thighs away from Johnny's radius, Teldryn capturing a chaotic image of John trying his hardest to heave out the entire bag of Takis he'd just wolfed.
“OH LORD, HE YACKIN!” Teldryn joined in, the perfect 10 second clip of the youngest man storming off as the final hurrah. He didn't hesitate to send it to Arthur, who would have given anything to be here right now.
Far in the forests of a state park, Arthur's side pocked buzzed. He loosed his foot from the stirrups, the horse he rode walking on of it's own accord behind Isaac's. The tranquility of the summer forest shook with the sound of John's dry heaving, the familiar screams of his friends. Isaac turned his blonde head around and gave a questioning look to his father, who cackled dryly down at his phone.
“You morons!” Arthur laughed, He gave them one job to babysit Johnny while Arthur and his son spent the weekend together, and this is what they do to him.
“What the hell is that sound?” Isaac asked, pulling the reigns on his horse to ride alongside his father, peering at the phone. “Oh man, they're torturing him!”
“That they are, welp... Guess I'm going to be hearing about it real damn soon that's for sure.” Arthur pulled his horse back onto the trail, half expecting (and half hoping) to see what else his goonish friends could come up with to put a few more gray hairs on Johnny's head.