Episode: 6.18

--- Ness ---

Walking into Sporis’s half of the underground, he spotted a number of more… lively mushrooms hidden amoungst the fog and foliage, watching the border between domains in the same manner as his own guards. Something he was pretty sure Prosperity wasn’t noticing, since like Wormy’s guards she wasn’t commenting on any of them.

(Kind of glad her awareness gets wonky while she’s here…)

While all of the factions of Prosperity’s wonderland worked towards the betterment of the wonderland, it would be something of an understatement to say that of all the factions the dreams of decay and the hive of dreams had… issues with each other.

War itself was nonexistent in the wonderland, but that didn’t mean everyone got along. This was most clear in the case of the insect and decay factions, given how often the two factions had their little… scraps.

A detail no one wanted to share with Prosperity.

As they continued on he began to spot more and more of the little humanoid mushroom creatures peeking out of small tunnels, that he knew led off to their various fungus farms, where through some function unknown function, (that Wormy is still trying to figure out,) they converted any resource type into another.

It was probably the one detail Wormy actually respected about the Fungi in spite of their leader. As a people, they were hard workers in their own way, producing quite possible the most resources out of any faction of Prosperity’s Wonderland. Unfortunately, they were also borderline hedonists in Sporis’s own way, since they were also the most likely to use resources for the most frivolous of things. (Which pisses Wormy off to no end.)

Personally, Ness himself had no issue with the faction, so long as they didn’t endanger Prosperity then they were free to do as they pleased, as far as he was concerned.

As they continued through the tunnels, they eventually came to a section of tunnel that he’d been expecting since the moment they’d stepped into the domain of the dream of decay. Whereas the rest of the tunnels had their various sources of lights, such as the glowing stones Wormy preferred, or the glowing mushrooms that had lined the walls for the last five minutes, the section of tunnel ahead of them seemed to have no lights at all, or rather all the lights in that section had been turned off.

(Here we go…)

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes as a faint tune began to pulse through the air, a sound that was somehow both ominous and upbeat at the same time, like some of the kid’s songs Prosperity liked to listen to around Halloween.

“Hello, hello, hello.” A baritone voice finally cut in from the shadows, as nearby mushrooms once more burst to life, their green and blue lights casting an eerie tone to the fog and shadows.

From the depths of the shadows stepped a thin man in a black suit, a cane topped by a skull in hand. The man himself however was a skeletal figure wrapped in creeping twisting vines that puppeteered the dream made corpse, all originating from a flower like mushroom in the skeleton’s left eye-socket.

(If we’re dreams, then Sporis is a nightmare…) That was a sentiment shared by most everyone who met the dream of decay and rebirth.

Sporis was a bit of a… unique existence, even amongst the more powerful of mother’s Dream creatures. A dream of creation twisted from destruction; a being made manifest from mother’s desires to use her inner darkness constructively rather than destructively. This in turn made him possibly the most complex of Prosperity’s dreams, if only in the physical sense.

On the one hand this meant he was the only one of the dreams who couldn’t be ‘chibi-fied,’ as Prosperity put it, and was thus the only one of them restricted to the wonderland if not actively summoned for some task in the waking world.

On the other hand however, he was also quite possibly the strongest of Prosperity’s dreams by default. A detail that actively grated on Ness’s nerves.

“Oh, mother dearest, you should have called!” The infected skeleton bemoaned in an overly dramatic fashion. “I wasn’t expecting to host any guests tonight, and I’m completely unprepared!”

“Sorry.” Prosperity apologized, more amused than annoyed by the fungus’s exaggerated mannerisms. “Something came up and this was sort of an out of nowhere kind of thing.”

“Oh, do tell.” The undead fungus somehow purred, as he pried for the latest bit of gossip from the waking world.

Prosperity, (bless her naïve soul,) couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she began to bounce in place. “Ariel is back!”

(Huh… that explains why she wants his papers…)

None of the dreams had ever actually met Ariel, all they knew were the bits and pieces that Prosperity subconsciously added to the foundation of her wonderland, or actively told them.

He himself, didn’t have a solid opinion of the guy, from the stories he knew the shadow knight had kept their mother safe, but at the same time he also knew two years was enough time to change anyone. (Hell, I’m not even two years old.) So, he’d give the guy a chance, but if he hurt Prosperity, he’d slit the knight’s throat.

A glance to Wormy showed a similar thought process, passing through the little insect’s mind. (Don’t know why everyone thinks he’s the kindest of us…)

Sure, Wormy was nice to the other Dreams, (excluding Sporis,) and was fairly good with kids, but that didn’t change the fact that the little worm was quite possibly the most ruthless soul in the entire wonderland.

It was half the reason he respected the little guy.

“Oh my!” Sporis gasped in delight, before waving a finger through the air. “Then we mustn’t delay, for your knight in darkest armor!”

The fungus clasped his hands over his cane, before giving a skeletal grin. “Tell me what you need, and I shall provide, dearie.” The undead mushroom offered, a distinct contrast from the attitude of the other male dreams.

“We just need to get to the undercity.”

“That’s all?” Sporis asked with faux offense. “Please give me a challenge, dearie.”

The skeletal fungus put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

(How does he do that without lips? Or lungs?!)

The surrounding music stilled, before several round figures rushed out of the darkness and stopped in front of Sporis or stopped as much as the bouncing Dead-beats were capable of anyway.

There were currently four of the dream creatures present, each had a pair of round green eyes and a round little mouth and was glowing a pale blue green, that shifted to a bright blue every time they reached the bottom of their ‘bounce’ before fading back to their pale color as they once more returned to their natural shape.

Each Dead-beat was seemingly bouncing on air in sync to some beat no one else could hear and using stubby little arms to hold the little instrument they’d been using to play Sporis’s background music.

“Alright you four, I need you to go on ahead and tell everyone to get re~ady!” Sporis told his minions with vigor as he began to pace in front of them. “Our deadline has been moved up, and I refuse to cancel the show, even if it means opening early tonight!” The skeletal fungus spun on his heels before facing his deadbeats. “Understood?”

All of the Dead-beats saluted with their stubby little limbs, before dashing off in a colorful blur into the darkness descending to into the dream of decay’s domain.

“Well then,” Sporis began turning to them with a skeletal grin and offering Prosperity his arm. “Shall we, dearies?”