strangetomato | Drabble+: Nightmare

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Drabble+: Nightmare

There's nothing quite like breaking your own rules, is there? I'm contrary like that, so actually coming out and saying I'm not going to post much will obviously make me want to write something. So here it is... a drabble+.

Prompt: A character wakes from a nightmare in the middle of the night to the person they least want to see at that moment.
Characters: Tank Grunt (and others, but you'll have to read it to see)
Wordcount: 400
Warnings: language, violence

Then Johnny stopped moving. Tank held his neck in his hands, and Johnny looked back at him with lifeless eyes.

He was dead, and Tank had killed him.

Finally.

Goddamned alien piece of shit.

But why did he feel so empty?

Oh, god. He had killed him.

"Johnny... Johnny?!" Tank shook him. "Shit... I didn't mean it. Wake up, you asshole!"

Frantically, he tried to revive him, but it was too late.

Then Ripp was there, wailing. He fell onto the corpse in despair. "Johnny! You've killed him. You've killed my Johnny!"

"Stop it!" Tank yelled, "Stop crying!"

"You killed him. My brother... you killed my brother."

"I'M your brother."

Why, Ripp? Why him? Why not me?

"I hate you."

Had he said the words, or had Ripp?

Then he was choking him, pressing Ripp to the floor, and feeling the life go out of him too.

Why not me?

He was killing him.

He wanted to stop, but couldn't.

He tried to break out of it, but couldn't.

He tried to scream, but nothing came out.

"Tank?" Frances was on him, shaking him. "TANK!"

Tank still couldn't move or say anything. He couldn't even catch his breath. He could see the room around him, and Frances reaching down at him, but he couldn't move. Frances had his hands reaching out towards his neck, and he thought he must be trying to kill him too. He tried to yell, "Get the fuck off of me!" but nothing came out.

"Tank?! What's wrong with you? Stop it! Wake up! You're scaring me." Frances felt his panic rising, and the next thing he knew, he had slapped Tank squarely across the face. "WAKE UP!"

Tank woke up.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Tank wanted to escape, to shove Frances aside and get out of there, but he felt a strange comfort in having him there too.

He didn't want to be comforted.

He didn't need it.

How much of that had Frances been able to witness? Had he cried out in his sleep? Dreams were blurring into reality, and he didn't want Frances to see that... to see what he had done. He didn't want Frances on his bed either.

"You... hit me."

"I'm sorry." Frances bit his quivering lip, and tried not to cry, but the panic and relief were too much for him.

"God... don't cry."

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That was a very clever drabble there.... delving into the mind of Tank, usually so closed minded himself.

Poor Tank. His subconscious is eating away at him and invading his dreams. I can only guess that he feels like the outsider of the family, rather than be part of the whole family unit. Pride and duty have always forced Tank to keep a distance and now he's really starting to feel the chasm.
Wow, Frances... you were brave... if Tank hadn't been frozen with fear, he could have punched him and knocked him out cold. But bless, he's so sensitive, putting the usually hard nosed Tank in an awkward position when the tears start to flow.

Thanks. :)

(I wasn't gone long, was I? *snicker* Hiatus... FAIL.)

Whoa I was totally blown away by that drabble!!! Feel free to go on your Hiatus any day now since I see this Nightmare drabbel kind of like a going away parting drabble. AWESOME JOB!

That's okay, so am I. And besides, I was only joking. :P
*snicker* I love Jon Arbuckle's last name.

Hehehe, penis envy. You know, I've always wanted to know how having one felt like too. But of course, I'd love to be able to remove it at any time. XD

I loved this. I'd figured that that was one of the reasons that Tank dislikes Johnny so much, but I'd never expected his subconscious to confront him with it all like that. (Though, being the Johnny/Ripp shipper that I am, I lol'd a little when dream!Ripp referred to Johnny as his brother.) And of course I loved Frances being the one to wake him there at the end, even if he didn't quite know how to handle the situation. I'm so glad that they're starting to patch things up, because their relationship is one of my favorites in this story (I ship them, too, but I do really love their friendship) and I really want to see more of it, especially now that Frances is out.

Thank you. It might be less confusing with images, since it does have that dream-like lack of structure. What was confusing about it? I'd like to know, so I might be able to improve it.

I did a post to request them.

madame_ugly did it first, and she got the idea from

laridian. It's great to have a prompt when you're feeling the effects of writer's block. I just posted and asked people to suggest prompts. There's a link to it on my sidebar (though few people have suggested anything since the first posting... re-requesting might bring some more, but I have plenty for now).

There are prompt lists all over the place, if you want to find a ready-made example. You could use some from the

simstorytellers community. Just go there and find the drabble tag. Also,

simfic50 offers prompts for sim writers, and challenges them to complete their 50 prompts with 50 short written pieces. It's on my to-do list for one of these days.

But he is very sad and very sweet..! He's also a bold, carefree, dirty-minded wisearse ;) Hehe, well, I actually didn't notice the posters for a while since I play with walls down so much, but his whole image etc. just screams "wannabe rock star" ^_^ I got him on the drums though, more 'cause I miss them ;)

Good point about the painting. I'd always thought though; it's Ripp who takes after Lyla more - including the outgoing. I've done a lot of digging while planning ahead, and have come to the conclusion that Tank actually takes most after Chip, his granddad. Not only does he have his eyes, he also has his quiet streak as well as nice points. And Buck is the spitting image of him (Chip), save for the hair and jaw - creepy o_o

This is why I love that family so much - all this hidden depth and complicated mentality just waiting to be explored... and that's just the living members ;)

Ugh, just ignore me - I made the same mistake one of my readers did on Insim; lesson for today - never read when you're really tired x_x The bit about Tank going "Why not me?" threw me a little, but it made sense when I read it again. Very effective use of paragraphs there.

Ah, I see; weapon against writer's block! Awesome idea :) Mind you, even without the block it makes for good creative exercise - definitely worth a try, thanks for the info. I saw the one on SST and have been very tempted to do one already, on "runaway"...

Very true. It's kind of a "build it and they will come" or maybe "speak of the devil and he shall appear" phenomenon. I'm happy to keep hearing from you, and yes people care a lot about your story and your presence on the internet that an extended hiatus is sad news.

My version of Tank is turning out a bit more resistant to being the favorite son. College has really loosened him up. He still wants to be in Buzz's good graces and still has a -14 relationship with Ripp, but I dunno...things changed with him in my game faster. He's found someone who makes him happy, and any angst about his family has kind of fallen to second place. I'm not very concrete yet in forming what he thinks of aliens, but he hasn't met many.

Your version of Tank is really wonderful to read. He's a strong silent type but definitely has a lot of thoughts going on inside. "Still waters run deep" to bring out another cliche saying. I do get the sense that he's in the middle of a lot of stuff he isn't all that prepared to deal with. His dad is gone, his brothers are reaching out to him, his roommate threw him something intense to think about, so yeah. Tank is turning around but given all that's going on it's no wonder he's turning around slowly.

I just love those little pixellated people!

Muses are temperamental things not to be messed with. No wonder the ancients made demigods out of them.

I think I need one of those boards that lets you write in the shower, because the best lines of dialogue come to me when I'm in there.

Gotta hop in here and totally agree with: Autonomous Tank in love is the best thing ever

It's like he's been freed from something. I <3 Tank in love.

Which makes your Ophelia have an interesting parallel with Shakespeare's Ophelia. When Ophelia has her breakdown in Hamlet, she becomes obsessed with flowers and is picking them when she falls into the river. She is seen laughing and playing in the cold river as her skirt billows up around her, keeping her buoyant for a time. Suddenly, the skirt becomes too soaked in water to keep her afloat and causes her to drown.

In your story, Ophelia has fallen in love with two men. This new sensation of polygamous love that she's being allowed to feel with both of them is the metaphorical skirt in the river (the situation). Now, the love keeps her afloat and she feels the exhileration of it all. Eventually, the complexities of the situation will soak into the skirt and destroy the relationship.

I'm way too analytical about things sometimes.

Yeah, it was a pretty lame hiatus, but I think this drabble might be a blip in an otherwise dry spell (I'm thinking I might get it back together by the end of the month, though, so it probably won't be a really long break). In all honesty, it's mostly the interaction on livejournal that has me burned out, as much as I do like it. Commenting and responding to everyone takes up so much time, and I feel bad for doing a half-assed job with it. It's definitely time for a bit of a break. I'll mostly be a lurker during this time.

Was it more emotionally charged? I'm not really surprised, since writing often reflects the head space of the writer. That definitely makes sense for this drabble, since I'm feeling a little emotional and intense right now. Hopefully, I'll be able to channel that into writing some of the emotional scenes that are coming up in the story.

Ripp refers to Johnny as being "his" in other chapters too (or is it just in things that are coming up... I'm not sure). Sometimes I think that Ripp tends to see Johnny as just an extension of himself (and maybe that's part of why he sees nothing wrong with the three of them being together). Perhaps it's a bit too much insight into Ripp for Tank's own dream, but I think that plays into Tank's fear of Ripp's allegiance to Johnny, and how he feels this coming between them.

That part where Ripp calls Johnny his brother is definitely Tank's own insecurity coming through, and he's frightened by the intensity of his anger there. Dreams where you end up killing someone or being killed are just terrible. I've have a couple of those myself, and they always involve very intense relationships.

Tank and Frances are definitely at an odd balance at this point in their relationship. There's still a great deal of uncomfortableness there, but they're actually relating better than they did before Frances came out to Tank, because Tank really is making an effort to accept him for what he is now, and they're more open about themselves.

Poor Tank... he's always surrounded by guys who want to shower him in their waterworks, and he's just appalled at the idea of a man crying.

Thank you. :)

You like aliens. . . you were already ~cool~.

Yeah, why not? It's a great way to get the wheels turning. You can always use the simstorytellers drabble prompts too, if you need more.

*snicker* How convenient that she said it all for you. :) And thank you.

Yeah, there was no set-up in the beginning. I sort of just jumped right into the middle of the dream. Had you going for a minute, did I?

Thank you. :) There's so much I'd like to say about the likelihood of Tank ever killing Johnny, but I'll save it for now. I will say that there are many ways to murder a person, and they aren't all direct or intentional. ;)

I don't think he'd ever do it purposely

Exactly. ;)

In a lot of ways he's a bomb waiting to go off.

He already went off once, didn't he? He sort of just snapped when he beat up Ripp that time, so it could happen again. I think he's learning to control his temper a little better, though.

*snicker* I'm a suck up to the mods as well. I'm the epitomy of ~clique~ oh noes!

I've already started writing a simsecret about you. :P You'll never know who wrote it...

LOL! You know I'll be waiting impatiently for that secret then... And if you're lying (again) I'LL KILL YOU! I know where you live, and it'll take me just a few seconds to use my magical teleportation powers for me to get all the way there. :P

So you recognize that Tank (or any number of characters) might not have a happy ending? It's true... but I do like the idea of things turning out "okay" in the end, and most of them will be alright for that reason, I think.

Maybe that's just something about Tank as a sim. He really has a lot of little habits and mannerisms (like that thing where he's thinking and tapping his head, or how often he takes out the trash) that paint a very clear picture of him for me. Or maybe we're just on the same page with him. (Well, not the Johnny-loving page. :P I don't think I'd ever go there, though I have enjoyed that storyline as a spectator.)

Oooh, are you a... ninja?

In the background, Frances lets out a huge sigh. *snicker*

Yes I am! Even though I hate ninjas, pirates, and vampires just like FRANCES!

Ooooh, he's in my secret huh? What, are you complaining about how MY version is too unlike yours? Well boo hoo.

...I was actually thinking of making a simsecret complaining that there haven't been any Frances ones in the past too weeks.

Hell, I'm thrilled that your Frances is different. He's a blast.

You should do it. I want to see Frances secrets all over the place. We have to make sure they're secrets, though, so we're not abusing the community with spam.

Oooh, does that make me a trendsetter? ;)

Ah, good point. It does show a feeling of being out of control, and second-guessing himself. Tank has to balance his feelings about Johnny with the fact that he is so close to Ripp, and therefore Tank would only harm his brother if he harmed Johnny.

Tank and Johnny might be too alike to be friends, even without the alien thing, but you never know... I think Tank wishes he were in on the friendship of those other teens, since he's so left out and friendless.

Well, Frances is a very light sleeper, so disturbing dreams wake him up. Good thing.

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Drabble+: Nightmare

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