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He had fully lost it for the first time ever today, and now he couldn’t get the memory out of his head. It was a horribly strange feeling to reflect on, now that he had time to just sit and think; that red tint that pulsed in his vision with each deranged sounding breath, and the all-consuming rage he felt. Tango didn’t even remember what he got mad about. Just that he had to a very frightening extent, and he almost hurt someone at school. The one thing his parents told him he should never ever do here in the Overworld.
And now he was having a sleepover at Zed’s house, along with Impulse and Skizz. The other three were asleep by now, as it was basically the middle of the night, but Tango was still wide awake sitting in the corner of the living room, hugging his knees with tears threatening to surface as he ruminated. The fear in his classmate’s eyes when he nearly had them backed into a corner, the way his hair completely burst into flames, the sheer amount of red that overtook everything he could see, the way he couldn’t control himself for several minutes. His heart still hadn’t quite slowed to a comfortable rate after that whole incident. In fact, it seemed to be getting faster now.
Well that was concerning.
Without even giving it much thought, Tango brought a hand up to grasp at his t-shirt. His logic may have seemed a bit silly and irrational, but he really did feel like his heart was trying to bust through his rib cage! So having his hand there felt kind of secure in a way, even if his heart rate was still slowly increasing.
What in the void’s name was wrong with him?
Eventually, it got so fast that the harsh pounding was starting to turn into more of a painful fluttering sensation that left him feeling all weird and jittery. And if that didn’t scare him enough, his lungs felt like they weren’t getting an adequate amount of oxygen, due to a tightness in his chest, so he started taking longer and more deliberate breaths to try and ease the pressure. That seemed to help for a little while, but then it just got worse. He kept trying to rid himself of the squeezing, demanding feeling, but it kept on getting worse and worse until his breaths came up too short and too fast.
And then his vision tunneled, and he lost all sense of connection to the world. All he knew in that moment was terror, and there was no way he was escaping its cold, icy grip on him anytime soon.
Tango didn’t know how long it had been before he gained some form of spatial awareness back, but when he did, there was a very concerned Zedaph sitting in front of him. He blinked a few times to clear some of the darkness out of his vision before saying anything.
“…Z-Zed? What’s happening- why d’ I feelike ’m dying?” The young blazeborne slurred his words a little as he tried to get a coherent sentence out.
“Don’t worry T, you’re not dying, just having a panic attack.”
“A wha-?” Tango felt like he’d heard of that before, but he couldn’t remember what exactly that was.
“I’ll explain it to you here in a sec,” Zed replied, “but first we need to get you calmed down, okay? I’m gonna start counting, and all you have to do is just focus on breathing; in for four, out for four, hold for five.”
Tango nodded in response, wanting nothing more than to stop feeling like he was on the verge of passing out.
Breathe in… Extremely shaky and a little too quick.
Breathe out… A bit harsh.
Hold… Not quite long enough, followed by a couple of gasps.
“Hey, you’re okay. Try again for me, we’ll get you through this.”
Breathe in… Still shaky, but better.
Breathe out… Just a little too fast
Hold… It was hard, but he managed to not immediately go back to gasping.
“That was better. Let’s keep going, you’re doing great.”
And so they did. Zed kept counting and Tango kept breathing until about five or six minutes later when the blazeborne finally didn’t feel like he was going to die anymore. When he was ready, he looked up at Zed (when did he close his eyes?), who gave him a warm, relieved smile. “You all good now?”
“I- yeah..” Tango replied. “Thanks.”
“No problem man.” The sheep hybrid scooted a little closer so he could sit beside his friend.
“…So,” Tango began, “w-what exactly was that?”
“Right, yes!” A look of realization flashed in Zed’s eyes for a moment. “What you just had is called a panic attack, and it’s basically like this… what’s the word… overwhelming? That’s probably not right, but it’s a type of response one can experience from a…let’s just say a less than ideal situation. Learned a bit more about them in psychology class recently.”
“Huh…” Tango trailed off. There was a beat of silence before anyone said anything.
“You wanna maybe move to the couch? I’m sure it’s much more comfortable up there, rather than the floor.” Zed asked, and Tango just wordlessly nodded. So the sheep hybrid stood up and helped his friend over to a nearby couch. Tango grabbed a soft maroon blanket that was sitting on the armrest and wrapped it around himself as he sat down.
“Do you maybe want to talk about what made you upset?” Zed asked. “It’s perfectly understandable if you don’t though.”
Tango thought about this for a moment. He really, genuinely did want to talk about things, but he was still so new to the Overworld, he didn’t know if he could properly trust anybody yet! Sure, Zed may be the first real friend he made here, but they’d only met each other about a couple of months ago. This friendship was still fairly new. “I’d…probably rather not. Thinking about it might kick those memories back into full gear, y’know?” It wasn’t quite the truth, but it was enough to get by.
“And hey, that’s okay! I won’t pressure you to talk about it, but just know if you ever decide to change your mind, I’m always here to listen.” His tone was so soft and kind, nothing like the loud, rowdy kids he knew back in the Nether that wrestled near lava lakes for fun. Zed was a good friend. “Is there anything else you want right now?” The sheep hybrid asked.
Tango began to open his mouth to say something, but then quickly shut it again because he didn’t know if this was something he should ask. But Zed has been super nice to him though, and the thing Tango wants to ask for, he hasn’t actually gotten one in a little while. Surely the sheep hybrid wouldn’t mind right? “Can I…C-can I have a hug?”
“Of course you can.” Zed replied. Tango opened up his blanket to let his friend into the cozy little cocoon, and they embraced each other for a good amount of time.
When Zed eventually pulled away, he found that it had apparently been the most amazing hug Tango had ever gotten, because the blazeborne was dead asleep in his arms. Zed let out a small, quiet chuckle. “Goodnight, T.” He whispered, and he lowered them both into a laying position, falling asleep himself soon after.
Tango may be anxious, socially awkward, and a bit traumatized, but his friends were going to do everything they could to make him feel loved, welcomed, and safe here in the Overworld.
SillyGoose_YT Mon 20 Oct 2025 06:18PM UTC
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