Chapter Text
Seve slumps over to his bed and jumps onto it, his face splatting into his comfortably warm pillow. He knows he has a tough test coming up tomorrow, but after the exhausting day he’s had, he couldn’t care less. He closes his eyes, intending to nap for just a few minutes…
He suddenly feels cold, and when he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a rudimentary classroom with all sorts of harsh colors. The tacky wallpaper is peeling, the desks are uncomfortable for anyone left-handed – which Seve is – and looking to his right, he sees Alexis giving him that dopey smile he loves and hates at the same time. He lets out a heavy groan of frustration and shouts “Come ON! I JUST GOT OUTTA HERE!”
The goat to his right silences him. “SHHH! Mrs. Slitherss is talking!”
He looks ahead of him to see a gigantic crimson snake with an even more massive head, which – for some reason – has a face. “She” has a long nose, and ludicrously big eyes that feel as though they’re piercing into the goat’s soul. She speaks with an atonal, almost robotic, yet condescending voice. “Wow. Just… wow. Sleeping? In my class? Sleeping is for after class, and after class is recess. Time to die.” Seve sees the snake’s eyes start glowing as a whir coming from her direction grows louder and louder. He’s been in too many insane dreams to mistake it for anything other than laser eyes, and he’s read too many superhero comics to not know those hurt .
“I’m out!” He jumps up from his chair, bolting to the paneless window and diving out, just before the snake’s lasers fire. They singe the wall with a blaring buzz as he crashes to the ground, kicking up particles of whatever it’s made of. As he gets up and dusts the softly-colored rainbow… something off of him, he hears a young, squeaky voice shout to him.
“Hiya there! I’m Ingot!” The goat looks over and up at the towering figure, and they definitely live up to the name. They’re gray with a metallic sheen and quite rotund, their body being a near-perfect sphere with their appendages sticking out where arms, legs, and a head normally are. “Mrs. Slitherss constipated my cool toy…” they sigh as they droop down.
“Don’t cha mean ‘confiscated’?”
“Whatever! She put it up on the roof, and I can’t fly up and get it! You can fly, right? Help me get it and I’ll even let you borrow it! C’mon, help a guy out!”
Seve’s ears perk up when he says “fly”, and he responds “No problem, buddy” with a devious grin. “HECK YEAH, I CAN FLY THIS TIME! Y’HEAR THAT, LEXI!?” He pumps his fists into the air, trying to take off. Nothing. He tries again; still nothing.
Ingot tilts his head, and it feels like Seve’s vision follows it. “Hm, why can’t you fly? Everything made of juice should be able to fly…”
“WHAT!? NO WONDER! I’M NOT MADE OUTTA JUICE!” He shoves the strange being, and he tilts backward.
He giggles as he regains his ground like a bobblehead. “Heheheh, this works! You hit hard! C’mon, gimme your best shot!” He pats his chest, making clanking noises as he challenges the goat.
“You’re on, iron boy!” Seve crouches down in a fighting position, squeezing his hands into tight fists as he gives Ingot’s stomach a hard slug. He immediately doubles over, groaning in pain.
“Ooooh! You hit too hard!” He rolls almost lifelessly on the ground. “Ah, I think I’m dying… Good thing there’s no vampires around, or they’d try to suck out my juice! Vampires don’t exist though, haha!” Ingot finally manages to roll himself over, and he points his nubbed arm over at the strange mouth thing on the wall. “See that? That’s a juice door. Mrs. Slitherss says it can’t, but it can be opened. I remember when another kid did it, but we never saw him again. I wonder what happened…” He takes a long pause. “Go on, try it!”
“Okay…” Seve looks down at Ingot, concerned. “You good, bud?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just… break those crates, get some juice, and open the door with it.”
The goat does what the metallic creature says, breaking a few crates with his fists. What comes out is this strange floating fluid, its harsh colors hurting Seve’s eyes as they magnetize to his body and dissipate. “What is this stuff? You seeing this, Alexis?”
She doesn’t respond. “Well fine then! I’ll figure this place out on my own! I don’t need your dumb tutorials!” He runs over to the door and the “juice” that assaulted his eyes appears in front of him. The door eats up the juice Seve gives it with an eerie yell, then explodes, leaving a gaping hole in the wall which leads out to what looks like empty space. He hears Mrs. Slitherss call back to him, this time in a more angered tone. “Step away from the juice door! Do not pass the threshold!” She panics and tries to entice the goat. “Report back to class for… candy!”
Seve pretends to listen. “Hm… let me think about this- NAH!” He dives headfirst into the nothingness as Mrs. Slitherss groans.
“Worst. Student. Ever.”
Seve finds his fall strangely comforting, imagining a groovy, surreal tune as he plummets from the planet-shaped prison he woke up in, wind blowing against his fur. His rest is soon interrupted by the realization that the ground is getting closer, and he isn’t slowing down. With a yelp, he curls up into a tight ball and braces himself, and just as he hits the ground, he awakes, pushing himself up from the bed.
He immediately looks at the time. “Ugh. Too late to do anything worthwhile.” He faceplants back into his pillow in defeat, returning to his dream. He opens his eyes again, and he’s in some sort of fountain, spewing the same rainbow fluid that assaulted his eyes. He steps out onto the fluffy dirt, and he feels… different. He’s surrounded by the inner walls of a barren graveyard, its doors long worn away and wide open.
Behind him, he hears a voice. “Heya!” He jumps back in shock.
“AH! Oh, it’s you . Thanks for nothing, Alexis!”
She stands on top of the fountain, looking down at the other goat. “Not my fault you can’t help but skip school! I swear, you wouldn’t stay in class if it killed you…”
“It almost did!”
“Excuses, excuses…”
Seve groans. “Forget it! I’ll figure out this juice stuff by myself!” He storms away, grabbing a jar full of the strange fluid he saw in the fountain and in those crates before. After popping open the cap, he downs the concoction, and his vision gets hazy . Everything becomes all vibrant, and his knees feel weak. He stumbles and nearly falls face first, but he manages to stay upright until the effects wear off. “I… Was it okay for me to drink that?”
Alexis shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. I would’ve told you, but since you were so ungrateful, I just won’t.”
“C’mon, spill it!”
“Apologize!”