December 2, 2022

Melody and Smores soon end up at a suburb right off the highway. The cracks in the sky above this suburb appear... different. Almost like a hammer hit glass. Pulsating. Oozing rains of static. Something feels off about this place, even moreso than the town they were previously in. They had seen a sign a ways back that read 'WELCOME TO BOYBERG'. As they make their way towards the suburb, they can notice that the terrain is slightly warped. Some of the town feels... glitched, in a way. A car drives by them, headed into the suburb, paying the pair no attention.

Melody looks around curiously. "Hm... this is weird..." She looks to Smores. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, are you?" There is a luna moth in his hair.

Melody nods. "Yeah, I'm okay." She squeezes his hand, smiling at him and the moth as they walk. They notice that this place is definitely populated. There's people out in their yards helping one another, small farms replacing their lawns, stuff like that. Melody keeps walking with Smores, checking out the area more.

"Hm.... do you think these people are weird like the last ones?"

"I mean... not everyone can be that crazy, right?"

"I mean... it's kind of the apocalypse? So yeah?" Melody says with a sigh. "What do you think the static is from?"

"I'm not sure. Looks like Asphodel's blood.." Smores sighs. Melody nods, looking for a local to approach. There's a couple of people out on their lawns-turned-farms and a few in their driveways upgrading their cars. They're wearing sick fucking armor. Melody approaches one nervously. "Um... hello?"

They approach a white, middle-aged mother wearing a blouse and cargo shorts with a heavy chained jacket over it and combat boots. She's got some tattoos and scars as well. She's tending to her farm.

"Well hey there!"

"Hi,, um, me and my boyfriend were passing through and I was wondering what's up with the sky? And the rain?" Melody asks, clearly nervous.

"We've got no clue!" she shrugs, "The rain ain't harmin' nobody, that's for sure. I'm Linda, by the way."

"Im Melody!" She smiles then pauses. "Um... you don't mind the fact im a deer, right?"

"We've seen stranger," she points to the sky.

"That's understandable,, are there a lot of people in this town?"

"Oh of course, sweetheart! We've got lots a people"

"Are you all human?" She asks curiously

"I am, honey," she says with a smile, "Most of us here are."

"Um... what do you think of non humans??" Melody asks nervously, messing with her backpack strap

"Not like you can help it."

Melody nods. "Last place we were they tried to kill us..." She explains

"Aw, well that won't happen here. We got bigger things to worry about." She points up to the crack as pieces of it begin to branch out.

Melody nods. "I see.... is it mostly harmless so far? Do you have any idea whats causing it?"

"It sometimes leaks this staticy stuff and we dunno what it is but it seems harmless. Some guy came through a couple weeks back and said it had something to do with... dream demons I think he said? Being in other worlds, which to me sounded like mumbo jumbo but considering everything else that's goin' on I wouldn't doubt it, but he said he'd be takin' care of it but the cracks are still here." She sighs.

"What did the guy look like??" Melody asks, raising an eyebrow

"Had weird pale blue skin and long dark hair," she thinks a moment, "Big horns as well, dressed in all black and was wearin' some sorta covid mask. Black eyes. He was honestly a little cute, but don't tell my husband," she taps her wedding ring.

"Hmm... I see. Did he say dream demons or dromen?" Melody asks

"He did say dromen I think! But he called em somethin' before that, dream somethin."

"Dreamwalkers???" Melody asks, clicking in her head

"Yeahh that! No clue what they are, but that's what he said."

"I see.. did he say anything else about them? Like where he was going exactly?"

"Nope, just said he'd be takin' care of it. Something 'bout some assimilation."

"Huh... thats weird..." Melody itches her ear. "And this was a couple months ago?"

"I think, few weeks or months, not sure anymore."

"I see..." Melody puts a hand to her chin. "Well dont worry about it miss! Me and my boyfriend will get to the bottom of this!!" She says with a smile

"Alright then, you two have fun," she chuckles to herself, starting to work on her crops again.

Melody heads back to Smores. "So apparently this is caused by a dromen and someone was here a couple months ago to try and fix it. But nothings changed. How weird is that?"

"Yeah... that's. Weird.."

Melody nods. "So i think we should try to find the dromen. What do you think?"

"Didn't she say another world though??"

Melody blinks in confusion. "Oh yeah I guess she did. But does that mean the dromens in another world??"

"That's what she said I think"

Melody makes the polite cat face. "Well crap. What do we do then?"

"Try to figure out what's up with the cracks?"

Melody nods. "Yeah but how!!! Should we just ask more people??"

"I'm not sure.. maybe?" Some of the white specks in the static of the cracks move.

---

JORMUNGANDR:【Lmaoooooooooo.】

HARMONIA: what are u lmaoing about

JORMUNGANDER:【Mel's not in the chat, right?】

HARMONIA: no i dont think so

JORMUNGANDR:【Okay. Lol. Wait till she figures it out.】

HARMONIA: what?

JORMUNGANDR:【The skygaps. Jesse's world has been assimilated to Veil 2. There's no other world being affected by them anymore. Only reason they're still around is Abaddon. It's a premonition of the Third Trumpet.】

---

Melody shrugs and looks around for another person to bother. There's a couple of teens on a Mad-Max style car. Melody walks over to them. "Hey!"

There's two of em, two boys. One's taller with dark hair and spiky armor while the other is average height with blonde hair and no armor.

The dark haired one responds first, "Hey. Who're you?"

"My names Melody! Im a traveler. I wanted to ask you guys about the sky cracks?"

The blond one looks up to the cracks and mutters something about a pattern.

The dark haired one says, "Ah, yeah. Something about the dromen monsters. Used to be pure black but they recently became staticky. Name's James, by the way."

"Huh, thats weird. Nice to meet you! Has everything been okay around here? Like nothing bads come from the cracks, right?"

"Things've been... relatively okay I'd say? Not much bad has happened. We're just trying to survive which... considering we're in a suburb is relatively easy."

Melody nods. "Makes sense,, so everythings been pretty normal around here?"

"Normal as things can be, I guess."

"Do you guys have anywhere we could stay maybe? Its okay if not-"

"Just pick any old empty house. A couple people evacuated."

"Okay, thank you!!"

"Yep." They can hear water flowing somewhere faintly. Melody looks around and heads towards the sound. Looks to be a pond in someone's backyard. She tilts her head at it, looking to see if anything's weird about it. A pale bluish-reddish-white scaled and webbed hand pokes out of the water for a second. Melody gets closer to the pond and reaches into it.

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