Blue

Ethan relaxed in his chair, as Thomas instructed. If he was being completely honest with himself, he really didn't expect anything to happen. He came because Mark asked him to, and although he guessed that he kinda had Egos, none of them were even close to Mark, Jack and apparently Thomas'.

Even though they were fun to make and play around with, he really didn't want to just copy what they were doing. Regardless, he was sitting on the couch next to Mark who was next to Jack, trying to see if he could contact any one of them, like everyone else was doing.

Ethan shook his head, Thomas was still talking.

"Just relax yourself, forget anything that is anything and focus on that. Imagine trying to feel the inside of your head. Like there's something in your head that you know is there and you're trying to feel it even though you never have before."

All Ethan could feel was his itchy forehead.

"Don't worry if you don't get it your first time either, I had been meditating for a while before anything like this happened to me. Don't expect it to happen, but don't doubt it happening, if you get there then you get there."

This all sounded a bit convoluted to him, but if it worked then he couldn't really fault it. Thomas went quiet, which Ethan presumed to mean that he was done talking and now they just had to wait to see if it worked for any of them.

After two or three minutes Ethan couldn't stay still anymore and opened his eyes, meeting Thomas', who hadn't tried since he was the one teaching everyone. Thomas gave him a questioning look, to which Ethan shook his head. Thomas nodded in understanding then they both looked around the room.

Mat also had his eyes open and was watching the other three curiously. Mark, Jack, and much to Ethan's surprise, Nate's eyes were still closed. They were all sitting extremely still.

After another minute or so, with Ethan tapping his knee habitually, Thomas whispered, "We can talk; they won't wake up so long as we're really quiet about it."

Mat took this as an invitation, which it was, and asked Ethan, "Did you feel anything? I didn't."

"I mean, I felt bored? But not really anything else." Mat and Thomas breathed a laugh at that.

"I'm just surprised that Nate got it on his first try, I didn't know that his Ego was that popular." Mat speculated, "Although he did say that he was dreaming a lot about him, which seems like it could be a symptom of your Ego being there."

"Yeah…"

The conversation drifted back into silence as they waited for everyone else to wake up.

"Joan's timed me and they said that it usually only lasts around ten minutes." Thomas informed them. Ethan got the sudden feeling that he would like to meet Joan, they sounded like an interesting fellow. From what he could tell by what Thomas' has said about them they seem like the kind of person that Ethan would vibe with.

Only moments later did Nate blink his eyes open, Jack following seconds after. Before any of them could speak, Mat gestured to Mark, who was still in the trance, "If you're going to talk, whisper."

The both of them looked at Mark, who hadn't moved, and they all silently and somehow unanimously decided to just stay quiet until he joined them.

Until he didn't.

It had been at least five minutes, and Mark wasn't back yet.

Jack and Ethan looked at each other worriedly and then looked at Mat, who was also worried and looked at his watch. "It's been at least twenty minutes, should we be worried?"

Thomas was frowning. "I don't know… I think that the longest I've ever been there was around fifteen minutes, and it should be relatively short anyways since it's his first time."

"Should we try and wake him?" Ethan asked, if this wasn't normal (or as normal as it could be for such a thing) then he felt like as Mark's friend he shouldn't let it happen.

Humming worriedly, Thomas said, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I've never been woken up during one of mine, and I don't know what it would do."

Before Ethan could try convincing him otherwise, and by the looks of Jack's open mouth, he was about to do the same, Mark slumped back on the couch. The lot of them were around him in an instant, Mat running to get Amy.

Already being directly next to him, along with Jack, Ethan could see that Mark was sweating, which definitely wasn't normal considering that the room was cold as hell (figuratively). Mark was also shaking, but not the shivering kind of shaking, more like the shuddering kind of shaking. And it was freaking Ethan out to no end.

Mark was never the kind of person to be afraid or nervous about anything in everything that he's done. No panel, no matter how big it was, was ever daunting to him, nothing ever seemed so scary to him, never to this point.

Mark gasped, breath stuttering, his hands jolting from where they were limp beside him to his chest.

Throwing caution to the wind, Ethan, and other people that he didn't bother noticing, began shaking and calling to Mark.

Who still wouldn't wake up.

Amy was now next to him, saying something that Ethan didn't hear.

Mark went limp again.

Someone started pulling him off the couch, but Ethan didn't want to leave Mark. He had to be there for him, especially now that something bad had obviously happened.

Why was everything blurry?