.

John was sitting in his room when he felt the darkness emerge behind him. He took a peak behind him as he set down his game boy on the bed. John was wearing his old shirt with a grey spades and light blue sweat pants. Everyone really enjoyed wearing their God Tier Outfits but John found himself getting quickly bored of it. So he decided to wear his old clothing even if it meant having to now wash it all the time.

John kept looking behind him where the wall should be and saw the smog's smoke rise and swirl just a touch behind him. It was probably only 4 inches away at best and it always creeped him out but John hadn't found a way to solution this blob.

The darkness didn't do anything as always just hung there silently behind him. John was already fed up with it ever since he woke up from his coma. When he woke up from his 2 month coma after defeating the last bosses in the last universe, he was so happy to see everyone. And of course, he saw that smoke thing linger above him. Fearfully he would point at it while asking with worried eyes, what was that? But no one could see it. Only he could. And after finally seeing his friends and everyone around him look at him with worry and with surprised looks...he really didn't want to mention it anymore. He laughed it off as he was like, "Oh, it seems I was just having a nightmare! I'm back! No need to worry anymore."

Jade gave John a fierce hug as the rest looked on longing. John enjoyed that day for the most part. He even enjoyed it after everyone left the infirmary room while he asked a hundred or so questions towards the smoke of darkness. But there was no answer and John didn't try anymore.

After leaving the infirmary he was briefed by Rose that everyone had been working very hard to fix this new universe and world. They had managed to copy about 7 other worlds and set it in this orbit around a new sun which was conveniently the green sun. John could only give a low whistle as he realized how very much it was GOD-Like really, what his normal friends were doing. Like how did they even locate and drag that thing to this new universe? Damn. Then again, he wasn't sure anymore if he could say he was even human or the rest of his friends. Not after all they had gone through. Those normal notions and concepts had died with the old world.

Rose led him to his old home which was tidied up and looking outwards towards a nice green pasture and lake. Rose said that Jade's, Dave's, and her house were surrounding the lake so they were always a fly or phone call away. John had asked what about the trolls as she said they inhabited another world. She said that Karkat and Vriska had managed to make many window portals and placed them all around the worlds. So visiting was also a phone call away or a fly away.

John could only scratch his head in amazement as he asked, "And you guys did all this while I was sleeping?"

Rose smiled smartly as she declared, "Yes John~ We were told by a dungeon monster you'd wake up in 2 months time and we all chipped in trying to make this world an awesome place by the time you did."

John blushed in honor as he mouthed, "Thanks."

Rose then got a phone call from Kanaya as she gave John a fast hug.

"I gotta get going. We're all going to crash at your house in 2 days time. We'll chat more then~ We still want you to get some rest and stuff. And sorry that we're all over the place. Just...so much work to STILL do. Really. I feel much more like an adult than a 16 year old by now. Seriously."

"Rose, so all I have to do is call you guys right? If I want to talk?"

"Yeah or you can zap yourself to us. Just don't hesitate too. And you should enjoy your vacation. You'll be working day in and out when your times up. Plus, I kind of can't wait till my vacation! So glad I was able to land a final wizardly punch at that boss. Puts me up there in next in line for the much needed and ever beloved vacation times."

Rose hugged John one more time as she flew away talking hurriedly on the phone with Kanaya about some matters of water.

John walked home to see his dad there. They hugged and had a wonderful night discussion sharing the similarities and differences in their lives. Since this dad was technically Jane's dad as well.

Dad had agreed with Jane that he would live with John and her at their different places.

John asked sitting comfily on the couch, "So you're living with me on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. And you're with Jane, Sunday's Wednesdays, Thursdays. And Friday is a family outing day? That sounds so GOOD!"

"You're not upset that we are not all living together son?"

"Naw, I'm okay with this. I mean...we do have tons of spare houses. It MAKES sense that we'd finally want to rule our own homes. Plus, it's kind of nice...it's like an adult perk to have your own place. ^U^"

Dad agreed as he asked John if for dinner he wanted Cake or Pie and John adamantly replied, "Neither!"

John walked up the stairs to see his room for the first time. He had forgotten to ask something else and he quickly turned to go back the stairs. It was then that he was face to face with the smoke of darkness. John could only constrain part of the scream as Dad quickly came out the kitchen asking what was wrong.

John sweated as he put on a forced chuckle and said, "Ah...u-um...I thought...I saw a s-s-spider dangling right in front of my face! Really hilarious how after fighting so many things, I'd...STILL be scared at something so...small? No w-w-orries dad!"

Dad settled down as he nodded in relief and went back to humming in the kitchen.

John had momentarily forgotten the thing and realized that he only noticed it when he'd look behind. He had no problem if he just didn't turn around. So if he just managed to control how he turned around, he'd not see it. With this, John spent the remainder of that night practicing how to turn and to successfully find away to not really see the black smoke.

He could pretend as if it wasn't there then. And for the most part it would work.

So to this day he remained quiet about it. He'd only turn around to see it, to know if it was still there or if it left. And after realizing that the smoke did mostly nothing, he was alright with it. It was only when John started to notice that he started to have negative thoughts up to recently that it bothered him.

At first, he would shake away the thoughts, thinking maybe they were rising traumas from all he had to endure and see in the past universe. It WOULD make sense that it would leave a scar or 10. He was just so positive that he thought he'd really be okay with everything that happened.

It still sucked that his whole world had died. His classmates, his town, his everything really. There would be no new movie releases or new anything. That just didn't exist anymore. Those sad thoughts did weigh on him. Killing off so many monsters and having to originally live in the dead-end timeline. He had been happy that Rose and everyone was here now, but in a sense he could never get over how they weren't really the friends he initially partook the whole journey with.

Not that he would ever mention this and hurt the feelings of his awesome friends. So he kept this other thing to himself. Though it would pop up from time to time in his mind.

While still in the room, John kept peering back towards the black smoke thing, trying to locate if there were eyes on this thing. Again he failed as he began to feel somewhat ill and looked away from it.

If he was looking at it too long he'd feel slight throbs of headaches rise and a twisting in his gut. He'd start to feel clammy and a rising fever. So he could only stare in moderation before becoming ill and becoming somewhat depressed.

He noted in a notebook he hid under his bed, facts about this strange smoke.

1) that it was dark

2) it was darker than the darkness when the lights were turned off

3)made him uncomfortable

4)made him sick if stared for more than 20 seconds

5) made him think negative thoughts

6)negative thoughts could be fought with a fast positive pep chat to himself

7) Lingers 4 inches away and moves away if he outstretches his hand

8)Never leaves

That was all the basic traits of this strange black swirling smoke.

It was probably a weird form of depression made tangible John had mused. But John knew that wasn't likely and that maybe it was a curse or something.

John promised himself that he'd say something about it soon. But that soon wasn't now just yet.

He had been told by his friends to relax since they all agreed that they would take turns constructing and fixing the world. 1 Person and 1 troll would have 4 months of vacation while the rest worked. And after their time was done, it would cycle on towards the next two who had a grander hand in finishing the game in the last universe.

John had been in a coma for the first 2 months and he just woke up a month ago. His friends figured that John should be up first on the roster since he did a lot of the heavy lifting. Though because he didn't wake up, John had already forsaken 2 months of fun times just by forced sleeping. John said it was okay when Jade recommended that they should tag on just another 4 months for John's Vacation, but John said it was alright.

The other troll who was on Vacation was Gamzee who had turned good during the last moments of the epic end battle. Turns out he was being manipulated for a long time and once he was blasted with the hope blast of light, he truly and finally came out of his stupor.

But John wasn't too keen on talking with Gamzee since he still felt creeped out by him. So John didn't bother to hang out with the other vacationing troll.

This black smog thing had only been with him for a month or so and for the most part John was fairing well. Happy thoughts were key in fighting against the subliminal depression vibes the smoke gave off. And playing all the games he wished he had before the game started, was the first thing on his mind.

John did notice some things while he stayed in his house that first month awake.

That bad luck things would occur.

Like the glasses he'd drink out of would conveniently slip out of his hand and shatter on the ground. After the 14th cup broke, he now resorted to drinking in plastic cups and always kept the mop around. He also noticed how he'd bang himself into many things. How things that shouldn't be in the way, then suddenly were. For the most part it didn't bother him. It only miffed him when he took off his shirt to shower all the new bruises and bumps he'd acquired. Also while now showering, it was more like a game. The water would turn to really hot or cold suddenly and he'd have to turn into air to escape from it. It took him longer to shower and Dad would sometimes knock on the door worriedly but John would always say that all was well. Dad did start to notice something as well but he didn't prod the thought too deeply and went on with his daily life being happy and alive again.

John knew for the most part that all these bad luck things was done by the hand of the dark smoke. Those negative feelings and bad things was all from it. But John wanted to discuss this slight problem only when it was really time. Luckily for him, in a month everyone would take a break and get together to discuss what had been done around the solar system. It had been named, "First international Meeting of the worlds."

John knew that would be the best time to ask everyone what he should do...and persuade everyone as well that no, he wasn't mental.

He knew this thing would probably kill him in time if he didn't do anything about it.

He just felt it.

He had been feeling more and more depressed each day and he was sure of it...that he now had it. Depression. Truly it was a killjoy having it during his vacation. But he didn't really want to reveal this to anyone yet.

He had always known about depression before he entered the game and he even had a first had a first encounter with someone who had depression.

When he was still little and his Dad had to go off to work, the lady next door who used to babysit John back then, had depression. It always confused little John back then. Having it now, up front and personal, felt different than how he'd imagined it.

Little John would never see the red head smile as he would ask her why. She'd reply with the same answer always," Because I'm broken John."

Little John would innocently ask, "Broken where?"

The lady pointed towards her head and towards her heart, "I'm broken in there. I can't fix it yet, but I hope to in time. You needn't worry about me. I'll be fine."

John smiled naively as he then walked off to bake cakes. He actually liked to make baked goods before he started to have a trauma against them.

A little later in that past, the Dad had hired a new babysitter suddenly as he went off to work. Little John had asked where Patricia was. Dad had a grim look when he bent down and put his hands around John's shoulders. Dad then questioned quietly, "Do you remember there was a lady who threw herself off the 5th floor at Food mart last week?"

John nodded. Dad sighed before he weakly said, "That was Patricia my son...I'm sorry."

John felt a hundred blows punch through his gut as he began to hyperventilate. Dad had crushed him with a hug as John hugged fiercely back.

And that was just about the closest understanding that John had about depression. That it eventually, "killed you" in spirit and in actual reality. John wasn't too worried since he was a God Tier. He wouldn't truly die if he did ever get to that breaking point. But...he didn't want to exactly push the boundaries. Like hypothetically, if he did try...to kill himself...could that be just or heroic? John couldn't imagine a situation where those two things would apply but he didn't want to try in the first place.

He knew he had depression though and he knew he was probably hallucinating the smog of darkness always lurking behind him. That could be the only reason he was the only one to see it.

But in the past few weeks, he began to be riddled with questions of his life. Quotes that rang deep within himself stating,

"Why are you alive? Why don't you just kill yourself? You're pathetic. You loser. Just die. No one needs you. No one really needs you."

And John was first surprised when he first mentally heard that. He had countered with a positive pep chat saying to himself, how ridiculous. He was loved. That it was a lie.

But those thoughts didn't stop. And John had to just brave each attempt that the depression tried to bring him down with his subtle persistence.

He had to get his act together before his vacation was over. It would soon be his turn to fix the brand new world. The door to the old universe was still open and he was given the job to look through the debris and see if there was a way to bring back the ghosts trapped in the bubbles or something like this.

That task was given to him since he had his nifty powers. And Jade would have been able to go with him, but since the green sun was brought to the new world, Jade could only use her powers in the new world then.

The game had ended by now and everyone resorted to pulling their weight and creating a wonderful universe. Though working on just a solar system was hard enough of a task.

John did answer messages for the most part in his spare time. The computer would stay on and it made him feel less lonely. He didn't get to sending messages for the most part. Everyone just kind of reported their daily lives to him in a subordinate like way. It did bother John at times, but he felt happy that even though he saw his friends flying around working hard, that they still gave him a time of day.

That was another reason why it just didn't feel right to kill himself.

For the most part, he was doing a really good job to continue to smile and fight playfully with his dad the days he was there. Dodging flying pies and pop tarts being thrown at him. It really was beginning to feel like old life back in the old world.

Dad was only trying to provide a nutritional snack to his son but John would always beg to differ as he'd scream, "Why can't breakfast ever be an apple or something? Why pastry goods DADDDDDD!"

Jane would come sometimes to see her family being truly silly and join in the fun by trying to convince John to get over his trauma over such delicious treats.

However this week, dad was gone the whole week since Jane came down with something of the flu. John said it was okay that he would stay. And so he kept playing with his game boy. It was when John smelled something peculiar in the air that it prompted him to stop.

John looked back forgetting that he'd see the ominous black thing but to his surprise...the black thing wasn't there!

John fought back the urge to yell triumphantly as he just took to shaking in happiness.

"It's GONE! That stupid bluhh is gone! I really was beginning to think it'd stay forever or something. Though...what is this smell?"

John whiffed the air a few more times then put down the game boy for good. He slipped into his hotdog like slippers, curtsey gift of Dave, and opened the door into the hallway.

The smell was more powerful as John finally understood what that smell was.

"Gas?"

John hurriedly floated down the stairs when he opened the kitchen door. He quickly held his breath as he shut the open Bunsen burners. He opened the windows very hastily as he started to blow out the wind with his powers. It was when he noticed the black smoke floating outside the window right in front of him that he paused.

"What? What are you doing there? Why are you in front of me?"

The black smoke lit a small fire as John saw the air around him then ignite with a fiery blast.

John had managed to zap quickly out and hovered high above his house. The blast had burned him on his arms and legs a little as he was somewhat smoking.

John coughed heavily as he saw his house below catch on fire. John saw the black smoke still down below right outside the kitchen window. The Smoke then disappeared as John continued to cough. He then activated fierce windy powers and made a light tornado form right above his house. The tornado wasn't forceful and mighty. So what it did was take the fire out of the house and as John brought the tornado upwards, the fire eventually shut down and John dispelled the tornado. The tornado managed to rip off the trees near his house though as the trees then flung all over the place. Dirt had also taken to flying everywhere and it all just settled into this lovely mess.

John was surprised as he felt some kind of fierce desire to kick something.

He didn't think something like that could happen. The smoke thing had always reliantly stayed behind him without ever once making any moves. And now he knew the smoke could move away from him and actively do things.

This terrified him as his face turned 3 shades paler. He floated gently back down and settled on the grass looking towards his newly somewhat destroyed house and front yard. Black soot marred the tops of the windows as dirt was splattered all over the house.

It looked awful and John was at a loss of words. He didn't know what excuse he'd make to explain this. John was face palming when he realize he probably should have made a captchalogged copy of his entire house. Sort of as a safeguard or something.

Now he'd just have to resort to cleaning whatever mess was in there. That would have to be saved for later. It gave him more of a headache to think about the actual cleaning when he was stinging so much.

John laid on the grass calmly now, trying to relax the sudden endorphins that had activated from thinking and acting quickly on the spot. The skin on his arms and legs that were exposed stung deeply and had a reddish pink hue. He didn't want to itch it and prompted to thinking that taking a dip in the lake would be a good idea.

"Yeah...maybe I'll feel better then."

It was when John was getting up that he decided to turn his head around.

And lo and behold the black smoke was there lingering quietly as it always did.

John forcefully got up as he turned his whole self around and stared angrily at the smoke.

He declared, "I know what you can do I'm not stupid! You can move around at will! I KNOW this NOW! So I'm onto you. You don't need to feign that you can't move you anymore you stupid shit!"

The smoke remained silent as it always did.

John was quickly being fed up as he coughed again. He was starting to get sick by staring at it so intensely. So as John walked on past it he muttered to the black smoke, "You're not going to win. Whatever you have against me, you're not going to win. I'm not going to give into you."

The smoke turned to John as John jogged towards the lake and took the dip he needed. He dove right in with a splash as he submerged under water. Staying under, he slightly wondered why he didn't do that sooner. The water was at a wonderful temperature as John arose. He shock excess water off his hair as he sighed in deep relief. John felt like he was having a fever rise from consequence of staring at the smoke so much in one day. But as John looked back at the smoke, it wasn't there. John felt at peace in the vast lake then as he took to wadding around.

He saw the houses of Rose, Jade, and Dave's further away. He was mildly thinking what he was going to say when the other's would look out their windows and see the horrid mess that John's House was in. John was mildly surprised that no one had come flying over already.

"I guess...they are all not home and working. Really, when I need to see them they are not around. Though I can zap to them I guess. However...lately I don't know what to say to them. Maybe they've caught on that I've been down and that's the reason they've been messaging me everyday. But...I don't know. I guess...I just feel pathetic. This is pathetic. Ah shucks, it's the depression talking now. BLUH. Get away from me! I'm getting more confused now! I'm not even sure if that's smoke stupid's talk or mine anymore. I need help. I need help."

With this, John floated out of the water as he dripped immensely. It didn't bother him as much anymore. He took to floating back home when he realized midway there that the front door wasn't there and probably lying forsaken somewhere else in the yard. As he neared, he was surprised that the hinges had remained. At least that did stay.

As he floated into the living room, many things had been flown around. It truly looked like an intense disaster had occurred and it was quickly putting John very very down. He never really enjoyed cleaning and he was sure that was a trait that would never change.

Feeling feverish and just fed up with all this bullshit he plopped down on the soot covered sofa. It was the only thing that wasn't unturned. The glass table had broken as John turned very slightly to get a good look at his living room.

"God...this is sooooooo AWFUL. FUCK. And here I thought I had toned down that tornado pretty well. Sigh*"

John remained silent then as he realized he was feeling immensely tired. To take a nap in this situation was probably a stupid idea. But he couldn't fight off the tiredness anymore as he closed his eyes and drifted on into a wonderful slumber. There he forgot about the pain on his arms and his legs. Forgot about the mess that his house was in. And most of all, forgot that smoke thing was probably still there. And so he slept.

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Author Notes: I really have no idea where this story is going. So it's going to be a splendid surprise for both you and me. ^\\\^