#snapped him like a glo stick

[sequentialprophet]

Hook really said break my back and Joe said bet

[mobunnyuwu]

-Slowly approaching one of the injured men, a metal leg kicks the man over, "Where's the Loki from this timeline?" the armored man asks. "W-what?" "So we are going to try the hard way? Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt." Then, the armored man takes out the Scepter. "No, wait!" without missing a beat, he used onto the Minutemen, his eyes glowing a bright blue. "Now tell me where he is."-

Chapter 1

  Loki exhales wearily as he sets down what feels like the 100th file of papers Mobius had tasked him to review. Glancing up from his files, "What's up?" Mobius asks. Loki lets out a long sigh. "Simply put, I am bored. File after file Is enough to drive me to madness!" Loki proclaims, dramatically leaning back in his chair and twirling. Mobius shakes his head tiredly. Every day, Loki attempts to evade any work. "It's not break time yet. We just started." Mobius states dryly.

Loki huffs quietly, displaying a subtle pout. He's been trying to break this man for weeks now. He can get Casey to fall for his antics and the other unwitting TVA employees, but Mobius and B-15 he couldn't crack. Perhaps not B-15. She can be intimidating with that Time Stick. "I need a break," Loki grumbles under his breath. Loki Looks over to the clock. It's barely been an hour since they started.

Mobius lets out a scoff. "Quit slacking off and help." Loki stares at Mobius with eyes wide. "Slacking? Me? You gave me a stack of dusty old files. You expect me to do what with them?" "Read them." Mobius deadpans again, and a small chuckle escapes his lips. He knows this irked Loki. Loki glared his mouth open to say something but snapped it shut and snatched a file, his glaring never leaving the older man.  

  Sighing, Loki goes back to reading his files. Mobius grunts as he leans to grab a new soda. Mobius cracks open the can, takes a satisfying sip, and then places it down. Loki eyed the soda intently. With a mischievous smirk, Loki notices the opened soda can and how dangerously close it is to a small stack of unread files. Pretending to grab another file, Loki drops his close to the soda and tips it over. "Whoops," he says as the soda spills over the files onto Mobius. "Dammit, Loki!" Mobius cursed, quickly getting up and catching the drink, spilling onto his crotch. Loki couldn't help a giggle slipping out. "Oh, Mobius, I swear it was an accident." Loki faked innocence. Mobius looks at the ruined files and then glares at Loki. "Really Loki. What the shit!" Loki couldn't hold his laughter. "What it was-" "Loki…" Mobius pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh. He picked up the files that weren't ruined and walked off without a word. Loki cocks his head. "So break time?" Loki chuckles but then frowns as Mobius continues walking out. That wasn't the response Loki wanted. Loki frowned. Was this a ploy to make him feel bad? Because it was working and he didn't like that. Sighing, Loki cleaned up the spilled soda and then went to look for Mobius.

  New York City 2012 9 pm, A Time Door pops up in Central Park, and a few minutemen walk out. "This is where we got a hit on the missing Tempad," Says one of the men. "Spread out and be on guard." They slowly began to search the area, Time Stick ready. "Be-" Suddenly, a beam of white light hit one of the Minutemen, knocking him several feet away from the group. "What the hell!" Another beam of light and more minute men flying about. Then it was quiet, the sound of heavy metal footsteps. Slowing the metal steps and approaching one of the injured men, a metal leg kicks the man over, "Where's the Loki from this timeline?" the armored man asks. "W-what?" "So we are going to try the hard way? Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt." Then, the armored man takes out the Scepter. "No, wait!" without missing a beat, he used onto the Minutemen, his eyes glowing a bright blue. "Now tell me where he is."

  Loki quickly tries to catch up to find Mobius. Not paying attention, he bumps into Casey. "Oof." Casey got knocked over to the floor. Along with his cart full of confiscated items. "Oh, so sorry, Casey," Loki says as he helps him up. "I should be used to people knocking me over. It's a daily occurrence," Casey grumbles. "I'm sorry I was in a rush… Have you seen Mobius?" Loki asks as he helps Casey put the last item into the cart. Casey gave him a confused look. "Wasn't he with you?" Loki sighs. "Well, he was but. I think I made him mad." "Ooo, if you made Mobius mad, he probably went to Renslayer." Loki cringed. "Damn it." He quickly stood up. "Bye Casey,..sorry again," He says as he jogs away. "B-bye," Casey says awkwardly, sighing as he continues his route. Loki has been causing a lot of trouble since working at TVA. Casey smiles. It's been..., kind of fun.

Mobius was walking quickly to get a change of clothes. "Mobius, wait up!" Loki calls out to him. Mobius groans and tries to get the elevator to close faster. Loki manages to catch the elevator doors before they shut. Mobius sighs deeply. "Great." He mumbles under his breath. "Were you going to let the doors close on me?" Loki asks, a bit out of breath. Mobius rolls his eyes but doesn't say a word. Finally catching his breath, Loki flips his hair out his face and straightens up. They sit in silence as the elevator hums.

Loki noticed Mobius needed to get off on the 45th floor, not Renslayer. That was a relief. They stood in silence, "I'm sorry there. Are you happy?" Loki huffs, crossing his arms. Mobius says nothing, keeping his gaze straight ahead. The silence continued. "C'mon Mobius, it was a small harmless prank….I guess I did ruin some files, but you wouldn't let me take a break…" Loki rambles on, his confidence starting to crack. The more he talks, the more the guilt settles in. Mobius stood silently. Loki huffs. "Seriously, Mobius? The silent treatment, how childish… so that you know, this doesn't bother me…" Loki was getting antsy. It bothered him. Huffing, Loki noticed that they were 12 floors away from the 45th floor. Quickly, he hit all the buttons on the panel. "Loki, come the fuck on, I don't have time for this…"

  Mobius was pissed, but Loki didn't care. How dare he make him feel like dirt. "No! I apologized. And you just ignored me.." Mobius lets out a loud groan and pulls out his Tempad. A Time Door opens, and Mobius walks in. Loki quickly follows through. They were in Mobius's living quarters. Loki also lived here under Mobius's supervision. Mobius promptly went to his room and slammed the door. Loki winced,  sighing hopelessly, and flopped onto the couch.

Sometime later, Mobius had a change of clothes, walking out of his room and straight into the kitchenette. Loki sits on the couch awkwardly, scratching at his thumbnail nervously. "Hey Um…Mobius?" Loki started awkwardly. Mobius steps out with a new can of soda and heads for the door. Loki quickly stands up. "Mobius, please. I'm... Sorry, I'm sorry. I know I've been a nuisance and took it too far, ruining important files. Please forgive me." Loki couldn't take Mobius being mad at him anymore. Mobius stops and looks at Loki. Loki adverts his eyes, ashamed. Mobius is shocked for a second but keeps his face serious. He needed to make a point to Loki, and he can't break it just yet. "I'll be back. You're done for the day," Mobius says and walks out. Loki's fists shake with anger, but he isn't mad at Mobius, just himself. "Shit."

Mobius loosened up his tie. It was a long night, and he could finally head home. He hoped Loki was in his room. He wasn't in the mood for any of Loki's antics. He just wanted sleep. Renslayer had him in a meeting for hours, asking about his 'project' and whether he was worth it. Loki has been trying to get under his skin for weeks. He's surprised he kept it up after failing so many times. Mobius opens the door, prepared for the worst. To his surprise, Loki is sprawled out on the couch with files on his chest, with his right leg and arm dangling off. Inspecting further, Mobius can see the soda-stained files on the coffee table and floor.

Mobius shook his head with a small smile. He would drop the act in the morning. Loki has learned his lesson. Mobius quietly passes and taps on Loki's foot. Loki stirs "Mm..bius?" Loki says sleepily, opening his eyes. "Yeah, it's me. Go, get into bed. This couch isn't comfortable to sleep on. trust me, you'll be feeling it in the morning." Loki nods tiredly, rubbing his eyes. "Mobius, are you still mad at me?" Loki's voice sounded small and frail, his eyes furrowed with worry and sadness. Mobius smacks his lips. he wasn't expecting this type of behavior. "Nah, I'm not now. Get some rest," Mobius whispers. Loki nods, yawing. He walks into his small room and flops onto the bed. He wasn't fully awake. But awake enough to get into bed. Loki didn't have a door to his small room. Renslayer didn't want any tricks from Loki. Though there's nothing he can do here at the TVA. Mobius gave a small chuckle and turned into his room.

Morning comes, and Mobius is up and ready to do his routine. Shower, brush his teeth, get dressed, and try to drag Loki out of bed. Since Loki did not have his powers or tried to rule something, Loki wasn't a morning person. Mobius always had to unravel Loki from his blanket. Loki would wrap himself up like a burrito. Mobius couldn't understand how that man slept all wrapped up like that. Finishing up, he went to wake Loki, only to be a bit surprised that he was already up and had two cups of hot cocoa ready on the table. "Ah, you're up," Loki says. Perking up when he sees Mobius. Grabbing a cup, he hands it to Mobius. Mobius takes it cautiously. "You're up early." "Well, aren't I always?" "No," Mobius says. He places the cup down without taking a sip. Loki looked a bit disappointed that he didn't try it. "What's up?" Mobius asks, noticing the look. "It's not poison." Loki glares. Mobius raised a brow. "I know it's not?" he said dryly. Loki crosses his arms. "Then why won't you try it? I got up early to get you the first batch." Loki now had his hands on his hips. Mobius sighs, here we go. "I will get to it in a bit," Mobius says, raising a brow.

Loki rolled his eyes and huffed. "I went out of my way to-to do something nice for you and, and you discarded it like it's nothing," Loki whined. "Fine, I'll drink it." Mobius throws his hands up in frustration. "Well, now it won't taste as good because you're forcing yourself to drink it!" Loki whines. "Loki, it's too damn early for this. I'll drink that damn cocoa. See..."Mobius takes a swig. "Mmm, thank you, it tastes good." Mobius tried to appease him, but Loki was still upset. Here he was, trying to make it right and be a good friend. Mobius treats it like a joke. "Ugh, forget it!" Loki grabbed his jacket with the words 'VARIANT' in bold orange letters and tried to walk out the door. Mobius grabs his arm. "Loki, wait…" Loki doesn't face him, his brow furrowed. "C'mon, don't be like that. Thank you. I appreciate you getting up early to get me the first batch." Loki tilts his head. "Well, technically, it wasn't the first batch…couldn't beat Casey to it."  Mobius laughs and puts a hand on Loki's shoulders. "Let's go, and can we behave today?" Loki gave a sly smile, "I'm always on my best behavior." Mobius rolls his eyes and leads the way. Loki follows close behind.

Minutemen were getting ready and leaving in time doors, "What all this about?" Loki asks. "I don't know?.." Mobius trails off. "Hey, you two…" They both turn to see B-15. "Renslayer has put you two in a new case. The files are on your desk." She says, putting her time stick away. "O-Ok, where are you going?" Mobius asks. "Another dangerous Variant is on the loose, and the rest of C-45 team is missing. We are on retrieval." Loki groans. "Oh great." B-15 walks into the time door. "Well, let's get to it," Mobius says. Loki nods and follows.

"So if they put us on this case, do you think it's another me?" Loki asks Mobius as he flips through files. "It doesn't look like it. One Hunters made it back. They said the Variant was in full armor, and with white beams of light coming from his hands, couldn't make out a face but had white glowing eyes." "Hmm, when was the last attack?" Loki asks. Mobius grunts as he leans over and hands over the newest file. "Here this was a few days ago." Loki grabbed the file and began to read.

Loki notices the date: "2012 New York…what—" Loki rolls his eyes. He doesn't want another recap of what he did, but the Variant was last seen here, and that's where the team went missing.

"Please, not another me." he groans; then something catches his eye, and he quickly skims the paper. "M-Mobius, hey," Loki says, snapping his fingers. Mobius was too into his file to hear him. Loki then threw a pencil at him. "What?" "I found something. An audio file is attached to this. C-45 manages to send a voice memo before going dark." Mobius pulls out his tempad. "What's the file name?" Loki reads off the name. "Um... audio TVA dash C45 dash 2012." Mobius puts them in. Both listened quietly.

There is white noise and footsteps. "Where is Loki from this timeline?"

 Loki gave Mobius a look. "W-what?" there was a pause, "So we are going to try the hard way. Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt." "No, wait!" then the audio cuts. Mobius looked concerned. "Why are they looking for you? And especially you from that timeline? There was the invasion-" Loki huffed. "I would like to put the invasion behind me. Thank you. How am I missing? Didn't you guys reset the timeline?"

 Mobius looked like a thought had popped up. "Hey, I was reading this one file from a few months ago, and I noticed that the Loki in that timeline was missing, but I figured we pruned him, but digging further, it doesn't say that we did, just missing, didn't think that would be important." Loki gave him a look. "Lokis' are missing, and you didn't think it was necessary?" Mobius shrugged. "Hey, at the time, we couldn't care less…" Loki crossed his arms. "Unbelievable. So how many me's went missing?"

Mobius cringed. "Uh, about a dozen last time I checked." Loki looked at Mobius like he was crazy. "Now, wait a minute, we were busy with the bad Loki, and we thought they were the ones doing it. Now we can see it's not a Loki killing Lokis, maybe…" Mobius quickly tries to explain himself. "Oh, I see how it is. As long as a Loki isn't your problem, it doesn't matter if they're 'pruned' or killed-" "Loki, we were just doing our jobs-" A loud explosion shakes the office. "What the hell." Mobius and Loki shot up. "C'mon." Loki nods and follows Mobius.

As they were running to the sound, they saw other TVA workers running away. Mobius runs into Casey. "Hey, what's going on?" "I-I don't know, B-15 and her team are different!" There was another explosion. A large piece of the ceiling broke loose and fell toward them. Without thinking, Loki quickly used his telekinesis to blast it away. Casey covered his head, bracing himself. Mobius looks to Loki in shock. "How are you-" "I, I don't know. I felt my powers return to me after that second explosion."

Casey looks to Mobius. "That's not good. That means the dampeners are down." Casey says, "Shit! We've been compromised." Mobius cursed as he ran to the control room. Loki quickly followed. "We're going to need backup now!" Mobius says into the tempad.

As they turned into the control room, they were stopped. B-15 and her crew, along with the missing team, were in front of them. "B-15?" Loki says cautiously. "Hey, what's going on?" Mobius asks her. Loki noticed her eyes. They were a glowing blue. "Mobius, B-15 is not here with us. She's being mind-controlled. " Mobius turns to Loki. "What do you mean?" Loki points. "Her eyes. That's what happened when I used the Scepter to create my army. Someone has it, and it could be another Loki." Mobius sighs. "Great!"

"Loki, he has been looking for you." B-15 says in a singsong way. Loki's hands were emitting a green glow. "Who?" A bright beam of light hits Mobius into a desk, knocking the wind out of him. "Mobius!" "I'm good." he gasps out. In his fight stance, Loki slowly walks back to Mobius. "Show yourself. Stop hiding behind mindless puppets!" Mobius manages to get himself up. "You ok?" Loki whispers, helping him up." Yep. I feel that in the morning, but I'm good." Mobius grunts, getting his time stick ready. "I can use my daggers or a Time Stick," Loki says, "Stall, I'll get back up." "st-stall Mobius! Mobius!" Mobius quickly goes into the time door he opened. "Stall!" Loki huffed. "Stall yeah, I can do that," he says, straightening himself and blowing hair out his face.

Loki slowly walks towards B-15. "Hey, I don't want to hurt you, but I will have to defend myself." B-15 laughs. "Stop pretending to be something you're not." Loki slowly walks the opposite way. "And what am I?" Loki asks. B-15 had a creepy smile. "A villain, no amount of good can right your wrongs. You have too much blood on your hands." Loki scoffs. "Ah, what of you?" he wasn't talking to B-15. He wanted to get to the person who was controlling her. "Show yourself!" There was a sarcastic laugh. A figure appeared, heavy metal footsteps echoing. Loki looked in confusion and shock. "Iron Man?" But the color scheme was wrong. The suit was more silver and black than the iconic red and gold, and it looked like the top half of the Scepter infused into the top of his right arm like a claw.

"Loki! Long time no see. You look domesticated," he says with excitement. As he removes his mask, it is indeed Stark.

 Loki was still in shock. Stark is a Variant in front of him. "Stark? W-why?" Stark ignores Loki and looks to B-15, "I'm going to need more supplies and this to be modified. Can't have the TVA trace me everywhere. It is slowing me down." B-15 nodded, and she and her crew walked out. Loki stares as Stark heads for the main computer that monitors the timelines.

Loki snaps out of it with a green blast of power. He hits the ground at B-15 feet as a warning. She stops walking. "I can't let you do that." Stark rolls his eyes, "Oh my god. Loki, are you protecting this place?" Loki thought about it. Why was he here?.. Mobius trusted him to stall so he could bring back up. Mobius trusts him. "B-15." Stark starts. She nods and uses her TemPad to leave. Once she was gone, Loki kept his eyes on Stark. Now, getting a better look, he could see the dark circles under his eyes and the paleness of his skin.

Stark smiles. "it's been forever since I've seen you, Reindeer Games. I can't say I'm digging your new look. What are you? some vacuum salesman?" Loki glared."If looks can-" "Why do you have the Scepter? Since when does an Avenger start killing innocent people?" Stark laughs. "oh boy, that, that was funny. Killing? Innocent?…" "That is what you are doing. Where are the rest of B-15 team and C-45?" "Not dead, but you are right. I am killing, but they are not innocent." Loki raised a brow. "I'm just killing every Loki ever to exist. Every last one you…" "What happened to the whole I'm better than you act because you're a hero? Now look at you." Loki spat. "Oh, I'm still better than you, and it's not murder, just extermination. I'm not the bad guy." "No. You're the bad guy here, not me. You deviated from your path. And now we have to get rid of you." Loki, with an illusion of himself talking, the real Loki, was ready to hit Stark in the head with a metal chair. "Not going to happen." Stark turns to the real Loki and, with the Sceptor arm, shoots him with a bullet-sized energy blast into Loki's left shoulder.

It knocks Loki back into a wall with a hard thud. His head hits the concrete wall hard, causing him to bite his lip. "See Loki after the whole Chitauri invasion, thousands of people died, people who were just living their lives…" Loki grunts, trying to get himself up. But he feels heavy and drained. "What-" "Oh, that will be a surprise for later, now listen and pay attention…" Loki couldn't stand. He was dazed, holding onto his now bleeding shoulder. Stark continues, "See, after a few days, we started helping on the clean up, and we found… a few school buses with kids all dead, on their way to a field trip to the museum. Looking forward to seeing dinosaur fossils," Stark voice becomes darker. "Just kids going about their lives, crushed by one of the fucking flying meat ships!" Loki flinches when Stark raises his voice. "After that, I can say  I had my low, but something an old colleague said snapped me out of it. You know what he told me?" Stark looks to Loki as if he wants him to answer. "Well?"

  Loki continued his glaring. He was in so much pain but didn't want to show it. The power he once felt was gone, and he wondered what Stark had done to him. Stark rolled his eyes. "He said you can't turn back time...but I'm Tony Stark. Ha, I created Iron Man with technology that didn't exist! I can go back in time." Stark laughed. "And I did, then I discovered there were other worlds like mines, multiverses, multiple of me and multiple of you… and that's when I had my epiphany. Lokis are like roaches, dirty and worthless. All they do is cause harm and death. Nothing good ever comes from you!" Stark walks closer to Loki. He tries to move, but that causes more pain. "S-so what, you want a cookie?" Loki spat.

"I've killed hundreds of you, didn't matter the age. I knew I was doing this for the greater good. Everyone will thank me!" "There are bigger threats than me. I wasn't the one who wanted Midgard! The Mad-" "The Mad Titian, yeah, I know we dealt with him, but you are right. There are bigger threats, but you were the test run, and to be honest, it's been fun tracking you Lokis down and disposing of them." Star had this psychotic look on him.Then Mobius steps out of a Time Door with more minute men. Loki looks to Mobius with pained eyes, "I stalled." Loki grunts out with a smile. Mobius looked at the man in his Iron suit. "Look, Mr Stark, why don't you come with us peacefully," Mobius says. He turns to Loki as if to ask if he is ok, and Loki nods slowly. "I'm sorry, but I've come too far to stop now." with that, the Minute men began to attack.

Mobius went straight to Loki. "I said stall, not get hurt. Thought you had your magic?" Loki grunts. "I did. He did something with that Scepter. He shot me, and I feel off." Mobius helps Loki up, "We need to get you out of here. Got your daggers." grunting in pain, Loki takes one of them. "He sent B-15 to-"

Stark threw a Minutemen at the wall near them. "OK, I guess I will have to continue this convo someplace else with no interruptions. B-15 got what I need?" he says into an earpiece. Stark looks to Mobius and Loki. Just then, a Time Door pops up with B-15 "Yes. It's ready to go." "Good." Taking it, he put in some coordinates. "Shall we?" A time door opens behind Loki and Mobius. "We can meet at a later time for now." Before any one of them can react, Stark blasted Mobius with a beam from his non-Sceptor arm, hitting Mobius. Mobius flung back into the time door, "Mobius!" "You better go get him." Loki, without hesitating he, jumped in after him. Once the time door closed, Stark clapped his hands. "Well, I just have one thing to do before we head out."

Loki landed on Mobius, "Gah, dammit, Loki!" Mobius groans. He wasn't mad at Loki; it was just the pain from the fall. "Mobius!? I'm sorry, didn't mean to land on you." "No, you're good, sorry." Loki quickly checks on the older man. Mobius was hit on his left side and bleeding badly from it. "How bad is it?" Mobius grunts. "Uh uh uh-it not-" "It's bad, isn't it?" Loki let out a deep breath. He was about to answer when the ground shook beneath them, followed by a loud explosion. Suddenly, rocks and debris began raining from the sky. "Ok, we need to get to cover." Loki ignores his shoulder and gets Mobius onto his feet with one arm around him. "Hold on to your wound as best you can," Loki says, handing him his tie to plug the hole.

Holding on to Mobius, Loki navigates through the chaos of explosions. "Hold on, there's a cave we can take cover by," Loki says, his voice quivering. "Uh, where the hell are we?" Mobius grunts. Loki was having trouble assisting Mobius. "Uhg, a little assistance would be nice." Loki half-heartily joked. "Thought you were this..ugh, strong God?" "No, that would be  my brother." Mobius groaned. He tried to laugh but winced in pain. The ground shook, which caused Loki to stumble, but he managed to catch himself. "Ah!" Mobius hissed in pain. "Sorry, sorry, we're almost there." Loki tried to keep calm, but inside, he was panicking. Loki desperately tries to make it to the cave. Loki was almost there. But he was stumbling more, causing more pain to Mobius. "L-Loki, not to…to whine, but can we try not tripping on every-" "Dammit, Mobius, I'm trying!" Loki snapped. "Sorry," he mumbled. Mobius made a sound of acknowledging him.

They reached the cave. Loki carefully placed Mobius down, and Loki took some deep breaths to calm himself down. Mobius, grunting in pain, snapped him out of it. Loki quickly went to check on Mobius's wound. Groaning, Mobius swatted his hand away. "m-ok, just a scratch. I've had worse." Loki kissed his teeth. "This is not just a scratch." Loki tugged on the hole of Mobius's shirt, ripping it open more, and the ground shook violently. Loki's eyes widened at the sight of the wound. There was a lot of blood he couldn't tell what was what. "Bad?" "We just need to slow down the bleeding." ripping the sleeves of his shirt and used it to plug the wound. "Ahh..shi shit!" Mobius screamed in pain. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I-I-I have to slow it down… Dammit, where's backup, shouldn't another team be here by now?"

 Loki was starting to panic, then another loud boom and more rumbling, and rocks began to fall onto them, trying his best to cover Mobius so he didn't get hit with any debris. "Are you alright?" Loki says after it stops. Mobius didn't respond. Peeking down, Loki saw that Mobius was shivering, his eyes fluttering. It must be blood loss catching up to him, "Hey hey hey, stay awake!" Loki needs to leave and find help fast. He leans over to Mobius to check his pockets, spotting his TemPad fumbling with the buttons Loki speaks into it. "This is Loki. Mobius is down- badly injured. I need someone to please-"

The ground rumbling stopped him. Mobius makes a weak sound. Frantically, Loki tries again, but nothing. "Mobius, no one is answering. h-how do I open a time door?" Loki wasn't allowed to have a Tempad or know how to use it properly, but he needed to use a time door to get Mobius help. "Mobius, please, I-" Loki didn't realize he started to tear up. He felt that he was useless. He couldn't help him. Taking a deep breath, Loki looked at the TemPad and examined it further for a clue. It looked like it was a date ready in the backlog. He picked the first one. A Time Door opened next to them. "Mobius, I have to move you again, s-so bare with me," Mobius screamed in pain, and a small whimper followed. "C'mon." Loki strains but manages to pull him in the time door

Wherever he selected, it looked to be nighttime and appeared as if the place looked trashed, but before he could get a good look, An arrow struck the  Tempad out of his hands, nearly missing his fingers. "What-" He looks up to see Hawkeye aiming his bow, and Black Widow has a gun drawn to him. "Found him," She says into her earpiece.

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, so you know “Justice League meets Batman’s kids, who they’d previously been unaware existed” AUs?

So picture that.....but this time, instead of them just having no knowledge of any of these other Gotham vigilantes at all....the Batkids all migrate to various cities as they get older and become known as their protectors - Dick in Bludhaven, Tim in San Francisco, Cass in Hong Kong, etc....

Meaning they’re all established figures, the Justice League are aware of them as solo local heroes who stick to their cities and so they just don’t interact with them much if at all, or else some are members of team lineups but are particularly vague about their histories or life outside of the team’s adventures....

So the big reveal isn’t that they become aware of all these other Gotham vigilantes all at once....its that some big conflict or whatever requires a huge team up of all available heroes, and in the aftermath, they figure out that like.....despite being known as solo heroes who work alone or loners outside of their team settings, 80% of these heroes all not only seem to already know each other, they seem to be related.

And so naturally they all turn to Batman, who has profiles on every known hero and they thus figure had researched these individuals too and just never mentioned this little detail, and they’re like, “Did you know about this?”

And then Nightwing turns to him too, arms crossed and is like, “Yeah Dad, did you know about this?”

And the infamous Red Hood is all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have never met any of these people before in my life. Lives? Whatever.”

And then Red Robin moodily grates out “I have no siblings.” Since he’s nursing a grudge since Dick and Jason broke into his apartment the night before and replaced all his custom Red Robin gear with Darkwing Duck merchandise and his vengeance will be swift and also totally disproportionate because things escalate quickly in this family, that’s true in every universe.

Cass meanwhile has deftly skewered Jason’s lie by walking over to him and brazenly patting down the man with many many guns with no fear whatsoever. He squawks and futilely attempts to bat her hands away as she riffles through his many pockets, but he doesn’t seem shocked, just annoyed. Eventually, she pulls away and triumphantly reveals a box of Hello Kitty themed band-aids.

“So these are yours then? Just for you?” Black Bat asks smugly. Red Hood squints at the box.

“What the fuck? How long have those been in my jacket? Why are those in my jacket? Did you freaking plant them in my jacket just on the offchance you could at some point in the distant future use them at my expense?”

Black Bat frowns, puzzled. “Yes?”

“Oh come on, Dead Hood,” Spoiler says with an exaggerated toss of her head meant to convey she’s rolling her eyes beneath her own mask. She skips her way across the room to Black Bat and then drapes herself languidly all over the smaller woman. Who in turn doesn’t so much as twitch beneath the sudden added mass as Spoiler holds out her hand towards the box of band-aids. 

“One please. I have a boo-boo,” she says with easy familiarity straight into the intimidating cowl of Black Bat. Only then does she deign to finish her train of thought with Red Hood.

“I mean seriously, are you saying you don’t have potential blackmail set-ups, pre-rigged releases of incriminating material, and a random assortment of traps, pratfalls and mortifying scenarios in place for the express purpose of being able to humiliate any and all of your siblings at any given moment, without any need for additional prep time?”

“Is this true, Little Wing?” Nightwing whirls on the larger Red Hood with a faux-scandalized gasp. The founder and leader of the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, renowned for his stratagems and calm competence when directing squads of supers in the heat of battle while he keeps pace with nothing more than naturally acquired acrobatics and a utility belt that apparently uses the same technology as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet....now appears to be....staggering with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead, moaning about how he felt....faint? 

What is happening right now, several dozen superheroes want to know. Is this a drill? Are they supposed to be checking for signs of a mental ambush from undetected psychic saboteurs? Did they all hit their heads at the exact same time and are now experiencing some kind of shared mass concussion?

Look, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen on the Watchtower. 

“Have I failed you so utterly?” The veteran child hero bemoans with a dramatic twirl - that when contrasted with his stern demeanor of a mere ten minutes ago - makes the fears of telepathic infiltration seem less paranoia and more....concerningly probable. “Did you learn nothing from me? Did you learn nothing from B?”

He stops and jabs a finger up at the sky. “Quick, everyone! What is the very first rule of Living While Batty?”

As if by rote, over a half a dozen voices chime in from all over the room, causing various heroes to jump. Spooked by yet more and more vigilantes joining in some kind of mass recitation like they and they alone have some kind of clue what the hell is going on and everyone else just hadn’t been invited to the party. Which is just rude, honestly. Nobody likes feeling like they weren’t invited to the party. Not even superheroes. 

“If you’re not going to bother preparing for every possible contingency and at least six impossible ones, you might as well just stay in bed.”

Even the Red Hood joins in the Illuminati chant or Cub Scout pledge or demonic ritual or whatever the fuck that just was, though his slumped and exasperated posture gives away every hint of sulkiness his headgear otherwise would have kept safely hidden. He’s surprisingly more...expressive, than most who’d only known of him by reputation had expected him to be. The day continues to yield surprises.

“Of fucking course I do,” he growls out, snatching the box from Black Bat. She doesn’t even fight to hold onto it, just lets it go with a knowing smirk. “I wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, I was just surprised she bothered with such a weak effort. Like yeah whatever, actually those could be mine. I use those all the time at home. So what?”

He aggressively yanks one of the band-aids out of the box, fumbles with the peel-off strips with one hand and he roughly rolls up the sleeve of his jacket with the other. Then just slaps it on his forearm and raises said appendage high, showing it off this way and that. “See?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Signal drawls from the other side of the room, nodding his head approvingly. “Totally convincing. Nice job walking that one back, you really showed them.”

Red Hood’s head snaps in his direction with ominous intent. “Watch it, Day-Glo.”

Signal just snorts.

“Yeah, like I’m gonna take constructive criticism on my name and costume from a dude who’s spent the last several years calling himself Red HOOD while running around in a freaking HELMET.”

“Its not meant to be literal, you fucking pedant.”

“So wait, its not literally a helmet? Huh, does it at least protect your head literally, or just like...symbolically? Like if Bane were to clock you across the head, would your concussion just be a metaphor? What’s the treatment protocol for a metaphorical concussion? Fluids, bedrest and a philosophical prescription of two chapters of Chicken Soup for the Soul as needed?”

“Laugh it up, KC and the Sunshine Band,” Red Hood bats back. “You just got yourself disinvited from Thursday night’s poker game.”

Signal just grins and folds his arms over his chest cockily. “Please. You’ve been looking for an excuse to ban me for weeks, cuz you know until you can prove I’m using my ghost vision to cheat, you can’t actually bring suit against me for it in Family Court.”

“That, and also Family Court isn’t a real thing, you toddler. Stop validating Wing-a-ding-ding’s obsession with Shitty TV Nostalgia and just call it that thing where Oracle traps us all in a room until we settle our latest fight without anyone getting stabbed.”

“Yeah, but like, say that five times fast,” Spoiler pipes up. “Its just not practical. Family Court’s way easier.”

“Says the one who’s not even in our fucking family.”

“And yet I grace you all with my sublime presence anyway,” she blows a kiss at him, beatifically unbothered. “You’re welcome.”

The Red Hood scoffs and rounds on his heel, zeroing in on Batwoman in the far corner.

“Hey Auntie B, my siblings are all dead to me and I just helped stop an alien invasion so I deserve nice things like a fun Saturday night. Can you get me into Dad’s fundraiser so I can crash it? He won’t put me back on the list until I promise not to bring any C-4 with me and I won’t promise not to bring any C-4 because he should just trust me that I won’t when I say I’m not gonna and he won’t trust me that I won’t until I admit I shouldn’t have brought any to that sting last month where three tiny little yachts blew up through barely any fault of my own, and I’m just not gonna do that ever because I have convictions and I feel I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Y’know?”

Batwoman blinks at him. “Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re my nephew and I love you, but I stopped listening three seconds into all that.”

“Ugh, fine. Can you help me crash Dad’s event tonight so I can teach him a lesson about why he should just trust me not to make a scene so I don’t have to always make a scene to make a point.”

“Tempting as you make that sound,” she says wryly, “I have a strict policy for dealing with you lot and your......everything. I only worry about tolerating one of you at a time, and there’s seven of you, and seven days in the week. You each get your own. You know perfectly well its Robin’s day today. You get me on Tuesday, just like always.”

“Auntie B, we’re not like other families, are we?” Red Robin’s delivery is sarcastically childish and his question clearly rhetorical. Most of his attention is fixated on whatever it is he’s doing with his wrist-mounted computer. 

“No sweetie, we’re all severely fucked in the head and a little bit too comfortable with that.”

“Just checking. Oh hey, Hood, I just emailed you a patch for the hole in your firewall I exploited when replacing all my shit using your accounts just now.”

“You did what?”

“Used your accounts to pay to replace all my stuff that you fucked with last night?” Red Robin says slowly. “Did you not realize that I’ve been sticking within ten feet of you for the past five minutes just so I could clone your devices and do all that while BB and Spoiler kept you distracted? I gotta say, bro, I feel like that’s on you then.”

Red Hood swivels his helmeted head in the direction of the aforementioned two. Black Bat waves. Spoiler shoots him an utterly unrepentant thumbs up.

“You’d side with your ex over me? That’s what its come to?”

“My only allegiance is to chaos,” Spoiler says brightly. Black Bat shrugs.

“Plus he bribes better.”

“Hateful,” Red Hood points at Black Bat, moving on to level the same finger at Spoiler, who curtsies in acknowledgment: “Hateful-er.”

Then the finger rounds the bases to aim judgmentally at Red Robin. “Hateful-est. And that was all Nightwing’s idea anyway, not mine.”

“Oh, I assumed as much,” he says casually. “Your idea of a prank tends to have more of a Carrie vibe. Or be a literal literary reenactment.”

“Its called an homage, 4chan.”

“Whatever, plagiarist. And anyway, I couldn’t go after ‘Wing for payback on this one. He used an Immunity card. If you didn’t want me getting back at you, you should have used one too."

Red Hood looms aggressively. Red Robin ignores willfully. Round and round they go. Superheroes who can survive excessive G-Forces are getting dizzy just watching them have a largely motionless stand-off. That shouldn’t be how that works, but whatever. All the most infamously reclusive and isolated heroes in all hero-dom are apparently part of the same one big reclusive and isolated family of fucked up weirdos and they’re all officially bonkers. Nothing makes sense anymore. Reality broke. Try another stall.

“Okay, but see, in order to have an Immunity card, I would have to participate in one of you losers’ stupid Immunity challenges,” the Red Hood drags out with exaggerated patience. “And I’m just not going to do that, on account of those all being fucking stupid. You see the problem there?”

Red Robin just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you, bro. You can have principles or you can have an Immunity card. You can’t have both.”

Meanwhile, on another side of....the same room.....look, its like, an octagonal room, probably. It has a lot of sides. Robin fends off questions from an aggrieved looking Superboy.

“You never told me you had a bajillion brothers and sisters!”

“Yes but I never said I didn’t either.”

Superboy rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, so I should just assume everyone I meet has a bajillion secret brothers and sisters?”

“Well clearly it would have worked out in your favor in this instance if you had, now wouldn’t it?”

“Assuming of course that you can trust what has been said or implied here today and I am actually related to any of those numbskulls. Which I am not actually admitting to,” Robin tacks on hastily.

Superboy eyes him dubiously. “You joined in the same creepy chant all the others did and then got super self-conscious and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Which uh. I did.”

“First off, your interpretation of body language is abyssmal. I do not get self-conscious,” Robin says with a delivery that probably could have benefited from being a little less self-conscious. “And second....that proves nothing. I guessed what they were going to say.”

“Word for word,” Superboy says super-skeptically.

“I’m very good at guessing things. You know this.”

“Okay. Guess how much I believe you right now then.”

Robin glares and folds his arms grumpily across his chest. 

“And what was that anyway? Was that like....you guys’ family motto or something like that?”

“Oh no,” Spoiler pipes up. “That’s much shorter.”

Superboy balks at that. “Wait, you guys actually have one of those for real?”

“Yup,” Steph says, counting out the words with her fingers. “He who laughs last....probably works for the Joker. So tranq him just to be safe. See? Only sixteen words. The first rule of Living While Batty is way longer, and what we said was just the abridged version. You should hear the original, before Black Bat put her foot down and refused to memorize it unless sizable edits were made.”

Superboy hovers between her and Robin now, both in mid-air and on the verge of taking Spoiler’s words as an invitation to hear just that. A low growl arises from Robin’s direction.

“Must you?” He asks the older vigilante, with a most put upon expression.

She looks at him pityingly. “Do you actually need me to answer that? Like, we’ve met, right? Hi, I’m Spoiler.”

“Wait, so Robin said that I just never specifically asked him if he had a bajillion brothers and sisters, and that’s why he didn’t tell me, so that means he wouldn’t have just lied and there’s not some code of secrecy that flat out forbids telling other people stuff, right?” Superboy realizes excitedly.

“Yes, excellent direction. Go on,” Spoiler says, steepling her fingers. Robin buries his face in the palm of one hand.

“Soooo, what other stuff could you tell me about Robin’s super top secret family that I wouldn’t think to ask about but that he would tell me about if I knew what questions to ask?”

She claps once, lightly but with emphasis. “Well done. You’ve passed the first barrier. Untold secrets await you behind just a few more.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Robin vows calmly. She waves a hand at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you do it before January 1st, remember? You’ve promised retribution like ten times already this year and those don’t roll over, y’know. Rules are rules.”

“Enough!” Thunders a voice then, from the front of the room. Well one of the fronts anyway. Like sides, it has a lot of them, but this is the one where Batman’s standing. All eyes snap to him. Which is kinda just what eyes do when Batman says stuff like that. Its like his superpower, except he doesn’t actually have superpowers, which is what makes it scary. But where the snapping of the eyes (directional) is usually followed by Batman saying something else besides just “hey look at me,” here he pauses in the wake of his own call to attention’s waning reverberations. Uncharacteristically silent.

Not that, y’know, he’s normally Mr. Talkity Talk, but usually his silences feel like he has the words to fill them, he’s just withholding them. This though, this feels more like he doesn’t have any words at all. And he’s as confused by it as any of them, and most everyone else is confused by Batman being confused, and its this whole trickle down economy of confusion and its wrecking havoc on the value of the golden silence standard.

Of course, not everyone present is rendered spellbound with confusion.

“C’mon B,” Nightwing cajoles, leaning forward and practically radiating delight. “I think you know what you have to do now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Its not likely to come around again.”

Red Hood snickers beneath his helmet and chimes in. “Yeah Pops, go ahead. You do this and you’ll actually have my respect for a whole twenty four hours. No, wait. Sixteen. No! Eight. Yeah, eight. Still a good deal.”

“Carpe diem, B,” Red Robin grins, leaning back as if to enjoy the show.

“Hey! Infringe on my trademark one more time, dude,” Signal throws a faux-glare at the former. Red Robin just quirks an eyebrow.

“And what, you’ll start saying Yum every time you eat a burger? Oh no. I’m hoist by my own petard.”

Signal flips him off with a grin and then redirects his attention back to Batman. “Yeah seriously though B, you kinda gotta do it now. Because if you don’t do it, then you’ll forever be the guy who didn’t do it, and you don’t want to be that guy, do you?”

“Yeah you really don’t want to be that guy,” Spoiler shouts out. “Nobody likes that guy. He’s the worst.”

“Do it, do it,” Black Bat starts chanting beside her, steadily picking up speed and volume. Several others start joining in. Even Robin appears to be slightly anticipatory, albeit trying very hard to hide it.

Batman sighs, and somehow everyone manages to hear it. Stills. Waits for....something? Nobody but them seems to have any clue what, but the air is thick and heavy with portentiousness. Something is about to happen, and all most of the heroes present could say for sure is it was something they never would have in a million years seen coming.

Finally, Batman straightens with the resigned air of a man about to have oh so many regrets. He crosses his arms, shakes his head, and in an absolute deadpan monotone, says:

“You are awful children. You know you’re killing me. You’re killing your father.”

[obsidiancreates]

Sit With Me, Captain

Swirling blue and black and whooshing and roaring in your ears as waves of time rush past and two choices lay ahead-

Left

or

Right

You go left.

You tumble out of the wormhole, landing on a cold metal floor. A familiar cold metal floor. Your heartrate stutters, and you look up.

The bridge of The Invincible II greets you, dark and silent. The control panels and screens flicker, the dim glo barely enough to light your way.

You get up and look around. Is this good, or bad? Surely you can find Mark here, but will it be in time? Is there ever a way to be in time, when one exists outside of time?

You walk through the halls, creeping slowly. No pages on the walls, no scribbles of a man left alone for an eternity. That's good, right? You didn't like seeing Mark like that. Or, did you see that at all? So hard to keep track...

It's all just empty.

Not a single living soul to be seen. Not in the hall, not in life support, not in ADS, not in Cryo, not in the Reactor...

You come to the door to the Warp Core.

It won't be there, you're sure of it. It can't possibly be that easy after all this time.

But you push the door open.

Blue light filters out of the hall, the sound of the rushing waves of time echoing off the metal walls. And before the wormhole, sitting cross-legged with his back to you...

Is Mark.

You startle a little, taking a small step back. You wait for him to notice you... nothing.

You approach slowly.

Nothing.

You sit down next to him, turning to look. The blue light paints him in an unnatural light, almost making him glow. His eyes are wide as he stares into it, a barely-there smile just slightly gracing his face.

Poke Him

or

Push Him In

You poke him.

"Hey Captain," he breathes out, not looking at you. "It's been a while, I think."

You wave a hand in front of his face. He just leans around it, eyes locked on the wormhole. "Isn't it beautiful?"

You look at the wormhole, and them back at Mark, and then at the wormhole, and the Mark. You point to it with your thumb in disbelief.

"Everything," he breathes out again. "Every universe, all of time, all of space... all happening all at once, right here, in the heart of our ship... in the heart of my baby..."

You lean away.

"Why were we trying to fix it, again? It's pure... everything..."

Push Him In

or

Mark, Where's Everyone Else?

You need to know if they're still around.

"They're everywhere. Every time. Does it matter if they're not here? They're never gone."

You shake him.

"Look at it, Captain." He holds his hand up to it, just barely sticking his fingertips in and tilting his head as the flesh is sucked into the swirling, raging breach in all of every reality. "Look at it. Everything that's ever been, everything that will be, everything that could have been and wasn't... all right in front of us."

Maybe Don't Stick Your Hand In It

or

We Need To Shut It Down

You gently pull his hand out of the wormhole, the two of your watching the color of his flesh swirl for a moment before being swallowed up by the blues and blacks.

Mark looks disappointed. "Why'd you do that, Captain? You don't like it? ... Listen to it. Can you hear them? The other worlds?"

You look into the wormhole.

I trusted you!

Oh, I've got it Captain, I've got it!

Wug Captain now!

This is my cousin, from uh, cousin school!

No choices at all really, aren't you sick of those?

I was... wrong about a lot of things.

"Endless." You snap out of it, looking back at Mark. He's leaning closer to it now. "I want to go in. But I know it'll just... spit me back out. Somewhere I can't see it anymore.

Push Him In

or

Look At Me, Mark

"Look at you? Why would I do that? I can see all of you, all at once, just looking into this..."

"... Heh. Except this you, I guess. But that's okay. Everything else... Captain, it's just beautiful."

Push Him In

or

We Have To Close It

He stiffens. His previously dreamy, distant tone is sharp. "Close it? Why-why would we close it, Captain?"

You jerk back and gesture at it with both hands, because IT IS OBVIOUS!

"... That's not one of your better ideas, Captain. It's everything. Would you really close off my access to everything? And... don't say anything about it being too much for a human mind to handle. Celci tried that. I haven't seen her since."

Push Him In

or

You're Not Thinking Straight

Mark laughs. "Not thinking straight? How can I be thinking any other way?" He stands, his back to you again after you jerked back before. "I've been staring into infinity. I know everything."

He tilts his head, and then finally... turns to look at you.

His eyes glow with the same eerie light of the wormhole. He smiles hollowly. "I know you don't hold many things sacred, Captain... but surely something this beautiful is an exception?"

He holds his hand out to you, blue electricity sparking down his arm. "Want to watch it together, Captain? The endless void? Take in all of nothingness and existence, the end and the beginning? Forever?"

... You Know, Why Not?

or

Mark, Please, It Has To Go!

or

Push Him In

You reach out.

"I knew you'd see sense, Ca-"

You lean back, and lurch forward! Mark screams as he flies back into the wormhole, going in butt-first, his beret falling to the ground.

"NO! NO, CAPTAIN, PULL ME OUT! I'LL LOSE IT, CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN, PLEASE, WE CAN'T DESTROY IT! IT'S EVERYTHING, CAPTAIN! PLEASE!"

His hand is the last thing to be swallowed up into the endless tunnels.

You pick up his beret and gently touch it with one fingertip. A cloud of dust puffs up, filling the whole hallway. When it clears, you bring it into the bridge and set it down on the main control panel. As you raise your hand in a farewell salute, the crystal in your hand begins to glow and hum.

You're sucked into the tunnels again. For a split second Mark flies past you, snarling and trying to grab you.

And then he's gone, lost to the very thing he spent who-knows-how-long gazing into and longing for.

And you...

Have two choices ahead.

Left

or

Right

[kikenmuses]

@daitanna​‘s pudding, to pro-hero!crey:  “Say anything about my *hic* costume & I’ll gut you alive…” Harumi gestured with his beer can, eyes heavy. “So what if I’m a god damn *hic* magical girl, I’ll kick your ass in these heels, no problem.”

They make an interesting contrast; one of them has a beer and the other has a coffee   ---   mug and all. Given all the work he’s supposed to be doing? A coffee seemed like a good idea. Should he have put it in some kind of container more suitable for travel? Yes. Did he ... do that? No. Nothing was supposed to interrupt him between leaving home and walking to the office and yet. There’s that thing he likes to say about 20/20 vision and the past. Whatever. He should have known better. It’s not like this is a favorite mug, anyway.

“Boy.” He sounds tired. “Them heels’re about as useful in a fight with me as a screen door is on a goddamn submarine.” A long sip is taken   ---   draining what’s left of coffee and some of the sugar that’s accumulated on the bottom. “I ain’t about t’harsh on your whole ... “ A wide motion to the other. “Hell. If anythin’? I got respect, cuz I’d kill myself in those things jus’ tryin’ t’stand still. I tried on platforms once as a kid and tripped up like a horse with a broken leg. Bam. Right down the stairs and onto my collar-bone. It snapped easier’n a frozen glo-stick.”

[lifeofclonewars]

Zoolffe, Stinker, Zoost, Gonet, and Glo Koon

Did someone say modern AU!Wolfpack? No? Here you go anyway. This is long than I originally anticipated. Part 4 of Pun Wars but, as always, can be read alone. AO3 link in the post below on my blog if you’d prefer to read it that way.

Summary: 

Grr has renamed Curveball to Stinker

Stinker Hey!

Booster Seat You should’ve seen that coming, vod’ika

Stinker Maybe, but that doesn’t make me like it any more

-

In which Wolffe helps his buir watch over his brothers (including Boost) at the zoo, Sinker acts like the little brother he is, Comet gets lost, and Plo gets decked in glow sticks.

—–

Wolffe wanted to help his buir out, he really did. But his vod’ikase seemed to have doubled in mischief-making since he left for college ten months ago. Now, home for the summer after his freshman year, he could point out all the things that had changed in the months he’d been away. 

Like Boost’s haircut. Were all fifteen-year-olds that moody and prone to shaving most of their hair and dying it red? Wolffe had always been grouchy— since he was a baby and likely would be till he died— so he couldn’t use himself as a base of reference. But seriously, what had Boost been thinking? It wasn’t even ginger or anything close to that. Nope, he had to go full-blown maroon.

Not that Sinker had been any better. The thirteen-year-old’s hair was silver. Upon seeing it, Wolffe had not been able to tell if it had been the result of a prank, dare, or just sheer free will. He had told Sinker it made him look like a tiny, old man. The brat had kicked his shin and told him it looked cool in retaliation. A few weeks later and he still didn’t know, and he didn’t plan on finding out. 

Comet, thankfully, hadn’t changed his hair. But he was ten, so it was bound to happen in a few years. Rather, the little rascal had taken to playing more pranks, mouthing off often, tackling Sinker and Boost (and once, an off-guard Wolffe, not that he’d admit it out loud), and then acting like a total sweetheart in front of their dad. He wasn’t quite at the teenage-brat stage Sinker had begun and Boost was well into but it was on the horizon. 

“Yes! We’re finally here!” Boost exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. The car made its way through the parking lot while their dad chuckled from the driver’s seat. 

Boost, Wolffe, and Comet sat in the back, allowing Sinker the passenger’s seat. A year ago, the teen might have boasted about it, but now it was automatic. Comet was still too young and, well…Wolffe and Boost hadn’t felt too good about sitting in the front since—  

Now wasn’t the time to think about that.  

The maroon-haired teen had been the most excited about the trip to the zoo. He had pleaded and pleaded and even made a presentation he proudly gave. Buir had entertained him and sat through it, then revealed the presentation hadn’t been necessary: he had already decided on a date for them to go. Now that the day had arrived, Boost was practically vibrating in his seat from anticipation. 

“Yes, it appears we are,” their dad responded. “Look at all this pandamonium.” He parked the car under a little sign with a cartoon panda displayed. Groans rang through the vehicle. The puns had begun. 

“Well, at least we’ll remember where we parked,” Sinker muttered under his breath. Wolffe rolled his eyes at his little brother. Thankfully, since he sat behind said brother, Sinker couldn’t see or react to it. 

The five Koons clambered out of the car and headed for the entrance. Buir led the way and Wolffe brought up the rear, making sure his brothers didn’t stray too far from each other. Soon enough, tickets were bought and shown and bags were checked and the family was in the zoo. 

At the first bench, they set down their two backpacks. “Alright,” buir stated, pulling out two things of sunscreen. “Let’s get this over with.” He handed one to Wolffe and they set to work, applying it to themselves and to the little rascals. After that, baseball caps were placed on heads, and sunglasses passed out. Wolffe took the backpack buir didn’t grab, and then they set off to see the Big Cats at Boost’s request.  

“Tigers, lions, and bears, oh my!” Comet said as they approached. Since he was ten, he was starting to get the hang of some of the references his aliit made that weren’t strictly cartoons. He’d been eagerly adding his own to the mix. Sinker smiled at him and gently punched his shoulder.

“Oh my, for sure, though the bears aren’t over here. Just wait ‘til the dad jokes for this start.”

Not a minute later, buir, being dragged along by Boost, who had a firm grasp on his hand, turned to his other sons and said, “Why are tigers terrible storytellers?”

Sinker sighed and indulged him. “Why?”

“Because they only have one tail!”

Boost snickered, coming to a stop in front of the tigers. Without looking at the plaque with information, he began to spit out facts about the striped cats. 

Buir listened, giving Boost his full attention. While Wolffe appreciated the care his dad was showing, that left him to make sure Comet didn’t try to climb up anything either. That was another habit he’d picked up. Most kids are little monkeys when they’re younger because they found it fun and were curious; Comet just liked to make things difficult for his ori’vod.

Instead of climbing on the railing, Comet had apparently made up his mind to try to dig his feet into Wolffe’s back and try to climb up him instead. Wolffe grunted when he landed a solid jab in his side but otherwise didn’t react. 

The little monkey somehow succeeded and clung to his older brother piggyback style. How he did it around the backpack was beyond Wolffe. Comet thumped his forehead against the back of Wolffe’s head. 

“Hey, hey Wolffe,” he said. “I wanna go see the penguins.”

Sinker perked up at that. “I wanna see the penguins, too!” It was the most excited he had looked yet.

Boost, having finished his ramblings, overheard his brothers. He frowned. “But I’m not done here!" 

"I can take Comet and Sinker by myself,” Wolffe found himself offering. Hmm.

Now buir was frowning at him. “Are you sure you want to, Wolffe?”

“I can handle it,” he reaffirmed. 

“Alright. Keep your phone on and stay together! Be safe, have fun." 

"Yep, we got it, buir. Bye!” Sinker was now the one to grab Wolffe’s hand and drag him along. “C'mon, you big lump nugget." 

"I’ll send you all the jokes!” Boost called out as they left. 

Sinker grunted as he pulled Wolffe along. “I come up to your shoulder now, this shouldn’t be this hard!" 

"Comet’s still on my back,” he reminded. Comet waved from where he was. It’s not like Wolffe was being particularly cooperative with the pulling, either. Sinker didn’t seem to register that, though. 

“Oh.” He dropped his grip on Wolffe’s hand, giving up. He pulled a map out of who-knows-where, double-checking they were headed in the right direction.

“Stay in sight,” Wolffe reminded. Sinker nodded and moved to Wolffe’s right but didn’t take his hand. “Sinker.” Wolffe turned his head to look at him.

Sinker turned, eyebrows scrunched together. “What?” A beat. “Oh, right! The eye…” He switched to Wolffe’s left easily. 

“That’s better.”

They continued on their way, occasional comments coming from Comet. Things like, “Wow, I feel so tall. Maybe I’ll be taller than you one day, Wolffe!” and “This is farther than the map looked.“ Once, even, "That cloud looks like Boost when he’s mad,” which got a few chuckles. 

Wolffe’s phone buzzed twice when they were almost to the exhibit. 

Chat: The Wolfpack

Booster Seat

Why don’t leopards play hide and seek? They’re always spotted!

Curveball

Wayii!

Wolffe shook his head at the messages and put his phone back in his pocket. The small group rounded the corner, and they came across a small building, appropriately decorated with various kinds of penguins. A mixture of photographs and drawings spanned the sign reading “Lina Soh Penguin Cove” and accompanying wall.

Comet jumped off his back and would’ve made a run for the exhibit, had Wolffe not managed to snag the collar of his t-shirt and hold him back. Together, they calmly made their way in, thank you very much. 

Once inside, both Sinker and Comet took off their sunglasses. Sinker placed his on the bill of his cap, while Comet took them completely off and hung them on his shirt. 

“Aren’t you going to take yours off?” Comet asked.

“Nope.” Enough rude people had openly stared at him already today because of the scar. He didn’t need the added attention a visible prosthetic eye brought. 

“Oh, okay.” Wolffe patted his vod'ika on the back, then shifted his hand to Comet’s shoulder to make sure he didn’t run over the people in front of them. He struggled against the grip for a moment but stopped when Wolffe’s grip tightened a smidge. 

Comet stopped in front of every single exhibit for at least a few minutes. He rooted himself to the spot when they reached the one that had a few rockhopper penguins— according to the sign on the glass— waddling around. His eyes brightened, jaw dropping slightly as he tugged on Wolffe’s shirt to grab his attention. 

“Those guys are like Lovelace in Happy Feet!” 

Sinker chuckled next to him. “Yep. I gotta say, that was not what I expected you to say.”

The youngest scrunched his nose, eyes narrowing at his silver-haired brother. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means you’re unpredictable,” Wolffe deadpanned.

Sinker made a face at Wolffe and answered Comet himself. “No, it means that movie is older than you so I didn’t expect you to make a reference to it.”

“You didn’t say anything when I referenced The Wizard of Oz earlier!”

“That’s a classic! Everyone knows it! But a movie from over te—” 

“One of them is walking this way,” Wolffe interrupted. If the duo kept that up, he was bound to have a headache by the end of the day. Nevermind the fact he’d volunteered himself for this. 

Comet and Sinker snapped their heads to the exhibit where, as per Wolffe’s word, a rockhopper penguin was waddling closer and closer to the glass. They gasped in unison and Wolffe couldn’t help but shake his head fondly at his vod’ikase. It was like they’d never seen one before despite what they had just been arguing about.

There was a small rock formation that served as a perch for the penguins to get close to the visitors. The glass was tall enough people couldn’t just reach in and steal a penguin or for a penguin to somehow hop their way out of the exhibit without a zookeeper there. The one Wolffe had pointed out had swum the small pool of water between the rocks to waddle along the perch. Comet waved to the flightless bird when it looked his way and it tilted its head. 

Comet gasped. “Did you see that? He saw me!”

Sinker peered at the sign on the glass. “This says his name is Vandor.”

“Hi, Vandor!” Comet said. His smile stretched wider, bright enough it nearly melted the ice in the room. Sinker took out his phone, taking pictures of Vandor and Comet interacting.

It took them another forty-five minutes to make their way through the rest of Penguin Cove. After his interaction with Vandor, Comet demanded they stop in front of each exhibit and read the signs to learn each and every individual penguin’s name. From there, he would find where each of them was, call out their name, and try to get them to react to him. He was remarkably successful with a good percentage of them. All the while, Sinker took pictures and videos, undoubtedly sending some to buir and Boost. 

Right before the exit, Wolffe stopped his brothers and made them put their sunglasses on again. Using the lull, Sinker announced, “Buir sent me a dad joke in response to the pictures.” Wolffe gestured for him to continue. “Why don’t penguins fly? They aren’t tall enough to be pilots.” 

Comet burst into giggles. “Hey, that’s a pretty good one.”

“For buir’s standards, yeah, it is,” Sinker agreed. 

Wolffe held back an eye roll. “Where do you gremlins want to go next?” he asked instead.

His question prompted Sinker to pull out the map again. “Hmm. Well, I want to go to the primate house but that’s a long ways away. We should go somewhere closer first, right?”

“That would be preferable, yes.”

Comet tugged Sinker’s arm lower so he could see the map as well. “The polar bears are close.”

“I’m okay with that.”

“Great, that’s where we’re headed, then.” Wolffe took the map this time and placed it in the backpack. His phone buzzed again as he slung the bag across his shoulders. 

Booster Seat

What do you call an alligator who solves mysteries? An investigator!

“I guess we know where those two are now,” Sinker commented.

The group spent a decent amount of time at the polar bears, though not as long as the penguins. From there, they saw the bears, which were just across the way from the polar bears. Sinker and Comet made a wide array of comments. From “They look meaner than any teddy bear I’ve ever seen” to “That one looks like Warthog” (which got some strange looks since Warthog was their bulldog), to even “Why are so many of them sleeping?”

After that, Comet got restless. He began to fidget more and Wolffe’s worries he’d start to climb up something he shouldn’t increased. While reapplying sunscreen, the truth finally came out: he wanted to switch groups. Wolffe had to pull up the family group chat to ask.

Chat: The Koon Cocoon

Howl are you?

Comet wants to join your group. Where are you?

Buir

We’re by the hyenas

Howl are you?

He says nevermind then

Ghosty Boi

Lol

Buir

Would you like to meet up for lunch?

Howl are you?

I think my bag has all the packed lunches, so that’d work best

Buir

Great. How about the playground by the children’s zoo? Around 12:30

Hook, Line, and— 

Works for me

Howl are you?

Sounds good

They had another half an hour to kill before they had to set out towards the meeting area. Sinker insisted they went to the wolf exhibit, “‘cause you gotta see your namesake, Wolffe!” and because it was conveniently on the way to the playground. With a sigh, Wolffe relented and they made their way to it.

Once there, they noticed none of the wolves were outside; rather, they had all gone to the indoor section of their exhibits. The “Lothal Wolf Lodge,” as it was so aptly named, had a striking resemblance to the outside of the Great Wolf Lodge water parks. 

“I think they should rename it the Wolffe Koon Lodge,” Sinker said as they entered.

“We don’t have the money for a donation big enough for that,” Wolffe responded.

Sinker huffed. “Well, maybe I’ll become a millionaire so I can and I’ll tell them to name it after you when I’m older. It’s a pun! It has to be done!”

“I thought you didn’t like puns,” Comet said. “You always groan when buir says them.”

“That’s because they’re dad jokes,” Sinker replied. “Puns on their own are okay. When said by dads is when they decline.”

“You make puns sometimes,” Comet pointed out. “Which might make them dad jokes in the future.”

Sinker cringed. “Let’s not think that far into the future.” He turned to the first exhibit and ignored his brothers. Wolffe chuckled lightly and followed his younger brothers through the lodge. 

After Comet and Sinker debating which wolf looked most like Wolffe and which one acted most like him, they agreed they were hungry enough to head the rest of the way to the meetup. Which was fortunate; had they taken any longer, Wolffe would’ve had to herd them outside himself. 

Comet climbed up onto Wolffe’s back once again, but not before Sinker was handed the backpack. It must’ve been more comfortable for him but it meant Wolffe got more pokes to his head and shoulders as Comet distracted himself as they walked. There was no reason for the poking— he was just acting on his little brother instincts, it seemed. 

The playground they met at had equipment that was styled after different African animals. Slides, swings, monkey bars, and plenty of picnic benches and grass. Given the time, the area was crawling with families of all sizes and ages. Shrieks, laughs, and the gentle murmur of talking floated through the air as they approached. 

Looking around, no open picnic benches were available. Something waving out of the corner of his eye caught Wolffe’s attention. He turned left towards it. There was Boost, waving both arms as obnoxiously as possible at a table he and buir had managed to secure. Sinker took off, as fast as a hunting lion, excited at the prospect of food. He tore the bag off his shoulders and opened it, digging around for his lunch box with only a breathy “Hi” to greet their dad.

Wolffe walked over and set Comet on the ground by the time Sinker and Boost had found their lunches and started eating. “Hi, buir,” he greeted.

Buir smiled. “Hello Wolffe, Comet. Glad you could make it safely.”

“Hi, buir!” Comet exclaimed. “I have so much to tell you about what we saw!” Delighted, buir beckoned Comet over and they sat together as the ad’ika began to talk his ears off. 

Soon enough, everyone had eaten their lunches and shared anecdotes of their day. Boost was ecstatic the day was turning out so well; it had been his idea, after all. 

Shoving his scraps into the closest trash can, Boost raced back over. “Okay, so I looked it up and the next dolphin show takes place in about twenty minutes. That gives us the perfect amount of time to walk over there and find good seats in time for it to begin. What do you guys think?”

“A dolphin show? That sounds pretty cool,” Sinker said. Comet nodded his agreement. 

“It’s settled then,” buir announced, clapping his hands together. “We’re all going to the show.”

The three youngest cheered. Once the table was cleaned up and back to how it was before they used it, the aliit set off. Once again, Boost and buir led the way with Wolffe in the back and the other two between them. Already, the afternoon was set up to be intriguing, to say the least. 

—

The dolphin show had actually been rather fun. Boost had wanted to sit in the splash zone and had to be reminded they didn’t have any extra clothes with them. Apparently, the prospect of walking around in wet clothes wasn’t appealing, as he then advocated for two rows above the splash zone. They did sit exactly two rows above it, close enough for some droplets to hit them but no need for ponchos or a change. Buir made one pun, letting the zookeepers make the rest (there were plenty): this show is fintastic!

After that, the Koons had gone into the section of the Chuchi Aquatics Center to see the dolphins underwater. Along with that, they were also able to see seals, orcas, and a cute little otter family that waved at Comet and Sinker. On the other hand, poor Boost couldn’t get them to wave to him.

“It’s because you stink since you never take showers. They can smell it through the glass,” Sinker teased. Of course, that led to buir and Wolffe temporarily separating the two before they could start arguing. 

While the aquatics had been fascinating, Wolffe’s vod’ikase were still a tad restless, energy levels high from their lunches. As a result, they walked back over to the playground they had eaten lunch at. Upon arriving there, Comet noticed the Organa Family Children’s Zoo and detoured them towards that instead.

Buir let the pups free once inside. The children’s zoo consisted of a building with multiple activities and an outdoor, fenced in-area with a petting zoo, a small aviary, and other outdoor games. Coloring sheets, a stuffed animal hospital, mini-classes, matching games, and more spanned the inside. Hopscotch, more lessons, and even a see-saw enhanced the outdoor experience. 

Boost ran for one of the lessons, Sinker for the aviary, and Comet for some sort of puzzle. 

Buir took interest in the signs on a bulletin board, announcing upcoming events. A multicolored, vivid poster caught his attention. He beckoned Wolffe over and tapped on the poster. “How does this seem?”

In tree-frog green read “Glow and Behold, a Fluorescent-Themed Event for all ages!” A quick scan through told it was happening tonight, after sundown, for guests who paid extra for passes. Zookeepers would be showing off the bioluminescent critters the zoo had, have glow-in-the-dark activities, and have a few presentations and shows along the same theme. 

He hummed. “I think Boost will like it. Comet will like the excuse to stay up later. Sinker might want to go just for the glow sticks.”

Buir chuckled. “Yes, that was what I was thinking. Would you like to go?”

Wolffe shrugged. “I’m fine with it either way. But if it’ll make them happy, I’m more willing to stay.”

“I guess that means we’re going to go, then. I’ll just need to purchase the tickets. Can you watch your brothers while I go do that?”

“Yeah, that won’t be too hard in here. What are we going to do about dinner?”

“I’m sure we can find a reasonable enough restaurant somewhere in this zoo.” Buir took a picture of the poster, probably as a reminder of exactly what he was buying tickets for when he got to wherever was selling them.

“Alright, be safe and quick.”

Buir grinned at him. “Always, Wolffe. Keep your brothers out of trouble.”

“That’s easier said than done.”

With a pat on the back, buir left. Wolffe found an empty seat and sat down. He took the chance to look through the notifications that had built up over the day. He’d only been looking at the chat ones so far. His brothers kept themselves occupied. Even if Boost and Sinker may have been on the upper end of the age range the children’s zoo was aimed at, they nevertheless found things to do and methods to have fun. At one point, Boost convinced the other two to join him in one of the lessons. They came back over to Wolffe afterward, spouting fun facts about pachyderms. 

Before he knew it, buir had returned, tickets safely tucked into his backpack. They spent a good hour more in the children’s zoo, leaving only once Boost got antsy to see the snakes and, as Comet put it, “other slippery, slimy creatures.” There, another dad joke was told: Why are snakes difficult to fool? You can’t pull their leg! Boost jumped at the opportunity to hold a boa constructor when a zookeeper offered. Sinker stayed a safe distance away and took pictures, laughing at some of the faces he caught on camera. 

Snakes, then the hoofed animals such as zebras, camels, donkeys, and antelopes. More pictures, more sunscreen, more bickering. A stop by the giraffes, okapis, cheetahs, and wildebeests. Comet was shocked to find out what warthogs really looked like, outside of their dog’s name and Pumbaa. They even caught a short program in the lemur house. 

Coming out of the program, everyone was getting snappy with each other. That could mean many things but, given the time of day, simply meant one: dinner time. Sinker pulled out the map and listed off the options at buir’s request. 

“I want to eat there,” Comet said, pointing to a restaurant on the map.

Boost scrunched his face up. “But that’s so far away. We should just eat here,” he pointed to a different spot. “It’s a lot closer, which means we’ll get to eat sooner.”

“Both those options suck.” Sinker yanked the map away from them. “I don’t know if you guys can read or not, but those places only have stuff we ate for dinner the past few days.”

“So?” Boost snapped. “That just means I actually liked what we ate for dinner. Just because you’re such a picky eater doesn���t mean we all have to suffer.”

“I’m not a picky eater!” 

Comet snatched the map out of Sinker’s hands as the bickering continued. Wolffe reached over and grabbed it himself. He handed it to buir. “Why don’t you pick? They’re never going to decide on anything and I don’t care where.”

Buir picked somewhere that satisfied Sinker’s food choices, still had options Boost and Comet would eat, and was different from the three restaurants that had been argued over. It was small compared to other eateries they had passed throughout the day but that, if anything, established a cozy, family-friendly atmosphere. The Savanna Shack— decorated with giraffes, gazelles, cheetahs, and more—  replicated a pit-stop on a safari. The waitstaff dressed up as tour guides and their waiter even had a stuffed African elephant resting across his shoulders. 

Bickering calmed as bellies were filled. The snappy bickering, at least. They were brothers: bickering happened twenty-four/seven whether they registered it or not. Everyone was content with the adventures of the day. 

After dinner, the crowds thinned, more and more guests leaving as the normal closing time loomed closer. Only those with tickets to the presentation stayed scattered around the exhibits. All things considered, it was a decent number of bodies; enough for clusters at every exhibit but not the overwhelming presence that it had been. 

At the Australian animals, buir somehow had a bucketload of jokes to tell. If Wolffe hadn’t known his dad had prepared them all the night before, he’d have thought he’d looked them up discreetly during dinner. 

“Can a wallaby jump higher than a building? Of course, buildings can’t jump!” directed towards Sinker, who groaned. “Are you enjoying the koala-ty time?” was said to Comet, who smiled and nodded. “What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato!” to Boost, who shook his head. “Are your brothers platypushing your buttons?” to which Wolffe held back a “No, but the puns are.” Had it been Boost, he’d probably have said it, but since it was buir…best not to. 

Like all good things, the peace came to an end. “I want to go to the primate house,” Sinker announced. “I said so this morning but I still haven’t been able to.”

“I don’t want to go there,” Boost retorted. “I want to see the Arctic animals.”

“The three of us already went there,” Sinker said. “You missed out, boohoo.”

“I want to see the bison and buffalo,” Comet piped up because what is an argument without the youngest butting in with their opinion. 

Wolffe sighed. “Guess we’re splitting up again. Same groups?”

That appeased them. Buir nodded his confirmation; the groups split off. Wolffe, Comet, and Sinker were sent off with one more pun. “Did you hear about the awful jungle party? Somebody forgot to bring the chimps and dip.”

“Alright, adike, bison and buffalo are first.” Sinker opened his mouth to protest and Wolffe held up a hand and continued. “They’re on the way to the primates. I promise we’ll see them.”

Sinker’s lips twitched downwards for a second but he nodded once and let them continue on. 

Once at the exhibit, they learned that buffalo and bison are different, despite most people using the word interchangeably. Buffalo lived in Asia and Africa, bison in North America and Europe. Huh. Guess you learn new things every day, even on summer break during college.

“They don’t do much,” Comet said as he watched a bison chew grass in front of them.

“Most of the animals we’ve seen don’t do much when the zookeepers aren’t around,” Sinker pointed out.

“That’s not true. I got the penguins and the otters to wave at me.”

“You’re a special case. That doesn’t happen to most guests.”

“The otters waved at you and Wolffe, too.”

Sinker shared an exasperated look with Wolffe. There are some battles you just can’t win. 

Somehow, Comet found a way to waste a full hour at the buffalo and bison. He took his time reading each sign, asking clarification for every word he didn’t know, and even some he did know. He tried waving at the buffalo, seeing if they’d look up at him. When they didn’t, he tried the bison, who also didn’t. Slow, small steps were around the exhibit as he moved to look at the individual animals. Why he was doing so was beyond Wolffe. 

Soon enough, Sinker had had enough. “Why are you taking so long! Ugh, you little brat, let’s go already!” 

Comet looked half-ready to either punch, bite, or tackle his older brother. Wolffe repressed a sigh and tried to intervene. “Sorry, Comet. We have been here a while. It wouldn’t kill you to move on, would it?” The expression turned from one older brother to the other. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Wolffe’s phone started a consistent beat of buzzes. “Wait a second.” 

Pulling it out, he noticed an alarm was going off. It was his daily reminder to take his brothers on a walk, something he’d been doing to let buir relax after dinner, get some of his vod’ikase’s energy out, and as an extra way to hang out with them with what time he had. The alarm was easy to turn off, but as he went to put it away, a non-buzzing notification appeared. 

Comet began to sidestep his way away from Sinker and back to the bison behind him. Coincidentally, he brought himself closer to Wolffe in the process.

“Hold still another second,” Wolffe ordered. Comet stopped. “Buir’s typing.” Sinker pulled out his own phone as the notification rolled in.

Chat: The Koon Cocoon 

Buir

Calling all Koons

Howl are you?

Comet’s right next to me

Hook, Line, and— 

Yeah?

Ghosty Boi

Hi

Buir

Hello, Boost

Ghosty Boi

:)

Buir

Just a reminder to reapply sunscreen and that we’ll meet up again for the fluorescence demonstration

Howl are you?

Yessir

Hook, Line, and— 

Yep yep yep

Ghosty Boi

👍

Chat: The Wolfpack

Curveball

Boost, aren’t you standing right next to him?

Booster Seat

Hmm maybe

Curveball

I can’t believe you

“Do we have to?” Comet grumbled when Wolffe pulled the sunscreen from the backpack. “The sun’s gonna set in a few hours, anyway.”

“You said it yourself, it’s in a few hours,” Wolffe replied, squirting some onto his hand and grabbing Comet’s arm to rub it on. “And buir said so. You don’t want to disappoint him and end up with a sunburn, do you?”

“No,” the ten-year-old muttered, scuffing the ground with his shoe but otherwise submitting to his fate.

“I’ve put on so much of this I’m faintly sticky,” Sinker remarked, rubbing some into his own arms.

“You’re not rubbing it in enough, you should know that.” Wolffe finished with Comet and moved onto reapplying it on himself. “You still have some visible on your neck, by the way.” Sinker scowled and rubbed at his neck harshly for a second before continuing on elsewhere. 

Once done, the bottle took its spot in the backpack. “Primates?” Sinker asked, looking more optimistic than he had a second ago.

“Primates.” The teen set his feet. “No running.” Sinker rolled his eyes and settled for a brisk walk instead. 

They made it to the “Sheev Palpatine Primate House” in record time. The structure loomed high, dark, and mysterious, casting a long shadow on everything around it. From the outside, there was no hint of the liveliness and cheer the rest of the zoo showcased. Had it not been for the sign, it could be mistaken for a large corporation’s administrative offices, or maybe even a sinister government building. Looking at it sucked the joy out of the atmosphere and forbode guests from entering.

Wolffe quirked an eyebrow at Sinker. “You still sure about this?”

He gulped, then nodded. “Yeah. The interior’s bound to be better than the deathtrap the outside looks like, right?”

Sinker took the lead into the building, Comet not far behind him. Through the doors and up some stairs— the architects must have planned carefully for this to work; bringing the rising reminder humans are primates, too— and they were in the exhibit proper. Inside, neither took off their sunglasses, nor their hats. Rather, they stared in awe at the sight before them. 

Thankfully, Sinker had guessed correctly. Greenery spanned the open exhibit from floor to ceiling; lush and healthy, food and cover. Sturdy trees stood tall and proud, vines hung lazily across them. It was a snapshot straight out of a jungle. Rocks, both fake and real, climbed the walls, providing seating and exercise for the primates. Lining the wall was a path, extended out as a bridge over the middle of the expanse and connected to another wall-hugging path on the other side before disappearing into a smaller room. Educational plaques made their appearances at even intervals along the railing protecting the walkers from falling. A small stream circled its way around the edges of the floor. Windows, nearly the length of the ceiling and far wall, lit the habitat with a soft glow kissing every branch, human, primate, and structure it touched. And that wasn’t even touching the activities and range of primates at home around the building. 

Who would want such a vibrant view so obscured and hidden from public eye?

Groups peppered the path. Some were smaller, a couple and their baby or a trio of friends. Others were larger, an extended family enjoying a vacation or a small summer camp group, energized and giggling.

If Wolffe snuck a picture of starry-eyed Sinker and Comet for possible blackmail or possibly because he wanted pictures of his brothers whether he’d admit it or not, nobody caught him and nobody needed to know. 

Phones took pictures up and down the path, Sinker’s included. They moved along at a slower pace than other groups; many passed them before they reached a quarter of the way through. A grin rested on Sinker’s face the whole time, delighted he got what he came for. 

Chimpanzees, apes, and gorillas interacted by the stream below. Food passed between a handful of them, like an interspecies picnic. Howler monkeys and baboons roamed the trees, rocks, and floor, passing each other nonchalantly. Primates of all shapes and sizes hung in trees with their young, cradling them gently, teasing each other, relaxing. A splash sounded as one small monkey pushed the one next to it into the stream; the interaction reminded Wolffe of Boost and Sinker at the pool. 

Comet and Sinker paused halfway across the bridge. Leaning over the railing, Comet seemed to be trying to look under the bridge, causing Wolffe to drag him back by the collar before he fell in. 

“I know there are nets, but let’s not test them out, okay?”

A sheepish smile made its way to the youngest’s face. “Sorry.” 

Another group made their way closer to them, also stopping for pictures on the bridge. Thankfully, there was still a decent amount of room left to move. Behind them, Sinker snickered. Wolffe turned, Sinker now to his left, Comet now at his back. He raised an eyebrow but Sinker merely smirked as both their phones buzzed. 

Curveball

Attached: primate-house-adventures.jpeg

The picture was of a pair of orangutans seated in a tree. To the side, not in focus but visible, stood Comet and Wolffe. The former, as happy and enthusiastic as at the penguins and leaning over the side; the latter, scowling out at something. Whether it was Comet or the monkeys wasn’t clear. One thing was clear, however: Sinker had taken it moments before Wolffe had pulled the rascal back.

Booster Seat

Lol, you good there Wolffe?

Grr

I’d rather not have siblings in nets, thanks

Booster Seat

Was he trying? Sounds about right

Curveball

Sure looked like it

Grr

I’d say I don’t think so 

But he’s been doing stuff like that more often recently

Booster Seat

Lol yeah, he’s definitely got Fett blood in him

Sinker had enough of the bridge, evidently, as he started to walk off and to the other side, half paying attention to where he was going, half glancing at his screen. Wolffe began to follow after, certain that Comet was right behind them. 

Booster Seat

Still:

Wolffe for #1 Brooding Face

Grr

Wow, thanks

Booster Seat

You’re v welcome

Curveball

Daily reminder that Wolffe is a grump yvw

Grr

I’d say you’re wrong, but…

Booster Seat

But…

Grr

Ever since I got home…

Booster Seat

Oh?

Grr

You’ve been the main reason

Curveball

WOW

Booster Seat

😂😂

Grr

Nope, that was directed at you, too, Booger

Curveball

BOOGER jfkdafj;ads

Sometime in the midst of the chaos of the chat, Wolffe idly noticed they had made their way out of the primate house. Sinker had paused here and there and looked up, Wolffe matching his pace. Outside the house, in the back and the opposite side of where they had entered, a small garden with a winding path presented itself. Looks had been deceiving in more ways than one with this building. Large boards along the path told more information about jungles and rainforests, including how an average citizen could help with conservation. 

Despite this, the chat continued to buzz, a total disregard for where the brothers walked. They wound their way through the garden and towards the nearest bench. 

Booster Seat

I, unfortunately, can’t think of a good comeback to that

Curveball

You can think of all those puns but you can’t think of a comeback

Booster Seat

Those were 100% Dad I thought that was clear

Grr

Can confirm. Watched him look them up last night

Curveball

Creepy

Grr

He was in the living room, di’kut

At a bench, they stilled. Comet hadn’t whined about not knowing what was going on, which was a bit odd, but not too concerning. Maybe he’d found himself some patience. Without looking up, Wolffe reached out his right hand to clasp Comet on the shoulder— 

And only hit air.

Kriff.

He spun, head swiveling, unable to find what he was looking for. Oh, oh no. This was not good. This was not good at all. 

His phone got turned off and shoved down his right pants pocket. “Sinker,” he said, somehow sounding calmer than he felt. “Where’s Comet?”

Sinker’s head snapped up. “I thought he was next to you. Is he not?”

“No.”

Sinker’s eyes widened. “Wait, so you mean—”

“Yeah,” he croaked out. “Comet’s gone.”

“Uh oh.”

“Sinker.” He gulped, Wolffe’s voice hardening. “I know it’s been a year, but do I need to remind you I don’t have a right eye? And that I need you to be my eye, which includes telling me if our brother has gone missing?!” Before he knew it, Wolffe was lecturing his younger brother. Out of nowhere, his thoughts crashed down violently as the desperation of the situation fully sunk in.

This was great. Just great. Splitting up was a bad idea after all. He should’ve known better. Buir always had good reasons to be concerned, why hadn’t he listened to him this time? He was really gunning for Worst Older Brother of the Year, wasn’t he? Why did he ever think he’d be able to handle this? 

He took off mid-sentence, Sinker to his left and keeping up, headed back the way they came. His head stayed consistently scanning back and forth, looking for a clue, a hat, a pair of sunglasses, a laugh, a whimper, anything that could lead them back to Comet. 

Why had he thought he’d been good to watch over two rambunctious brothers? He couldn’t even avoid a car crash after driving for a few years. It’d only been one since he lost his eye and Boost gained his scars. He had felt fine when he’d suggested it but this showed that he wasn’t as adjusted as he thought. He knew he only had half of his former vision, he lived with it every day. And yet, he still dismissed it when Comet moved into his blind spot, didn’t check in like he should have. Like he was supposed to. 

Nope. No. No. Now was not the time to delve into those…issues. Focus. 

Find. Comet.

He didn’t pop up along the way back to the exit of the primate house. Hopefully, that meant Comet parked it where he was. Speed up. They needed to walk around the building and go through the front. A glance left. Good, Sinker was still there, frowning at his phone. His own buzzed for the nth time in the past few minutes in his pocket and he ignored it. Sinker was probably texting one of the chats, updating them on the situation. They had more pressing matters at hand. 

They rounded the corner and raced into the building, throwing the door open, skipping steps as they hurried into the exhibit. Wolffe barreled his way down the path, shoving past the few people scattered along the trail who didn’t get out of his way. He might have growled at one person who gave him a stink eye but that didn’t matter. No signs of lost little brothers along the path or the bridge. 

He glanced down as he hurried across the bridge. “Good, he didn’t fall into the nets,” he said, only half-registering them as coming from his own mouth. “Keep up,” he barked at Sinker, who had been falling behind, about two steps behind where he had been. 

Across the bridge, into the smaller exhibit and still no glimpses. He wasn’t where Wolffe had last seen him. He wasn’t in the section right past where he had last seen him. The end of the building, the stairs. Not on the stairs. Down the stairs, don’t trip, don’t fall, shove open the door. The door slammed open from the force and he raced through the frame. He turned to his right, and— 

There was Comet. 

Deep breath. The poor ad’ika looked frightened out of his mind, eyes taking in the sight of his brothers. Scanning him quickly, Wolffe couldn’t detect any injuries on him. Thank Force. Sunglasses gone, hat askew and clothes rumbled, but no signs of injury. His shoulders dropped ever so slightly and he stepped over to his vod’ika, leaning down so they were at approximate eye level. 

“W-Wolffe,” Comet whimpered. Oh, poor child. “Wolffe! I’m so sorry! I was still looking at the monkeys and I thought I was next to you still but it turned out to be a guy who looks like you from behind and I tried looking for you but you were already gone and by the time I was out here, I remembered I shouldn’t move if I got lost but I didn’t want to go back inside the building and so I thought here was better than anywhere else, and—”

“Shh, we’re here, you’re safe,” Wolffe whispered, cutting off the ramblings that had sped up as he said more. Tears glistened in the corners of Comet’s eyes and the weight that had lifted off Wolffe’s shoulders resettled with twice the force. He reached forward and pulled the little rascal into a gentle hug.

“I was so worried you wouldn’t find me! An’ I lost my sunglasses but I’m not sure how. That was so much worse than getting sidetracked in the grocery store.”

His arms tightened. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m sorry, vod’ika. It’s not your fault. You did what you were supposed to do, that’s a good thing. It helped us find you. I’m so sorry. It’s not your fault, it was mine. I should’ve been paying more attention and I will pay more attention from here on out. I’m sorry. Don’t worry about the sunglasses; they’re replaceable but you aren’t.” 

An idea popped into his head. “Ah, you’re too big for this, but screw it.” He lifted Comet off the ground and half-set him on his hip, one arm under his legs to hold him up, the other wrapped around his back. Comet latched on, burrowing closer and clinging. His head found the nook between Wolffe’s neck and left shoulder and buried in, arms taut across his neck and shoulders, hat knocked back further. 

Sinker stepped up to Wolffe’s left, feet light, and pulled the hat from the black hair. With a glance at Wolffe, he opened the backpack and shoved it inside. Zipper pulled up, he hesitated, then threw himself at the duo. Arms tightened around both backs and the teen dipped his head near Comet’s ear, mumbling his own soothing words and apologies. 

The three stood there, wrapped together for a minute before Sinker pulled away when the door opened and a small family shuffled out. Eyes flickered at them, trying to be respectful but also curious. Wolffe watched them scurry down the path and make their exit. Sharing a look with his silver-haired brother, Wolffe made his way through the gardens and around the posters himself, Sinker walking as close as he dared. At the exit, they stopped. Where to go…?

Glancing around, Wolffe noticed they weren’t too far from the playground they had eaten lunch at, the children’s zoo on the opposite end of the expanse of grass. He told his plan to Comet, who nodded stiffly against his shoulder. With his right hand, he reached out for Sinker. The teen complied quietly, who also nodded when Wolffe told him the plan. 

Wolffe tried to walk as evenly and gently as he could, careful not to jostle Comet too much. His grip on Sinker stayed firm as they made their way to the park. 

The equipment was much less crowded than last time. Normal closing time having long since past, the other families had to have been there for the presentation and were killing time and energy. Laughter and the sounds of childhood memories in the making still rang out but nowhere near the roar it had been earlier in the day. Only a handful of picnic tables were taken; ones that were held exhausted parents, the odd older sibling, and a grandparent here and there. 

Picking the closest table, Wolffe sat down. “Gotta move your leg, bud,” he whispered to the boy in his arms. Comet let Wolffe swing his leg around and readjust him so they could both sit comfortably. The backpack was wrestled off and placed on the table, contents presumably jumbled up in Wolffe’s frantic search. He leaned his back against the table and Comet curled himself tighter around his ori’vod, legs across his lap and arms tight around his chest, face buried in his side. Wolffe’s left hand came up on its own accord and started rubbing soothing circles into Comet’s back.

Sinker gingerly sat to Wolffe’s right. He folded his hands in his lap and looked out at the children running around on the equipment. 

At last, Wolffe was able to drag his phone out of his pocket and turn it on. No doubt, Sinker had been messaging one or possibly both chats while they’d looked. And the likelihood of Boost, being Boost, responding and goading in at least one of them was sky-high. 

There were thirty-three notifications from the Wolfpack group chat. Ka’ra gaa'tayl kaysh. Opening the chat and scrolling to where he’d left off, Wolffe saw the last message he’d sent in his haste to turn off his phone and start looking for Comet.

Grr

Besides, I was goifjdaskljakldsa

Booster Seat

Uh, Wolffe? Why’d you…do that?

???

Curveball

Uh oh

We’re in big trouble now

Booster Seat

What happened?

Curveball

Comet’s gone

Booster Seat

Jfkldasjkldaj WHAT

HOW DO YOU LOSE HIM HE’S SO CLINGY

Curveball

Don’t tell buir

Wolffe’s reactions are kinda funny tho

Booster Seat

Do tell

Curveball

Well, besides the lecturing me part. That sucks.

He’s hardcore panicking rn

Guess we’re retracing our steps oop

Booster Seat

Is he gonna ask anyone if they’ve seen him?

Curveball

His brain cells are turned off so no

Booster Seat

Kjasdfk;klas;klfadskjadsfkl

😂😂😂

Curveball

Headed back through the primates now

OMG HE LOOKS LIKE AN ACTUAL WOLF

People are literally JUMPING out of the way

Booster Seat

Buir’s looking at me funny stooooop fdkjfkasjs 

I’m trying my best not to cry laugh!!!!

Curveball

“Good, he didn’t fall into the nets”

Run Wolffe Run

Wait, no, wait for me!!!

Wayii, slow down!

Booster Seat

I’m dying. I’m dead. You’ve killed me. 

I’m seriously gonna get in trouble with buir soon 

But don’t stop

Curveball

We’ve found him

Please don’t tell buir

Booster Seat

I promise

There were many options Wolffe had to deal with this. The one he decided on probably wasn’t the best, or the most mature, but it was his favorite. Nothing like a little brotherly affection, right?

Grr has renamed Curveball to Stinker

Stinker

Hey!

Booster Seat

You should’ve seen that coming, vod’ika

Stinker

Maybe, but that doesn’t make me like it any more

Grr

:3 Suffer

Booster Seat

w h a T did I just see

Stinker

My eyes! I’m scarred for life now

Grr

Good. Suffer.

Booster Seat

I think I liked you better when you were at college

Grr

I liked you better then, too

Stinker

Great, now that that’s settled, let’s not lose Comet again

Booster Seat

Yeah, that’s pretty important, Wolffe

Grr

I hate you both

With that, Wolffe turned off his phone and put it away before turning to Sinker with a frown, who was pocketing his own phone. “That really was unnecessary, you know. Sorry for the lecturing, but the texts? Not needed to be done that way.” His now empty hand rested on Comet’s leg.

Sinker was smart enough to look slightly guilty. “It was kinda funny, though,” he mumbled. Wolffe leveled him with a stare. “But I won’t do it again and I’ll help you more next time,” he amended. 

Wolffe nodded once. “I thought so.” Sinker continued to stare at the playground. A frown etched itself onto his face and he huffed to himself. Wolffe rolled his eyes. “Go swing or whatever, I don’t care. Just stay in sight.”

The silver-haired teen ran off like a cheetah with his brother’s permission. Wolffe turned his attention back to the little brother still curled around him. 

“Wolffe, ’m really sorry,” Comet muttered into his chest after a moment of quiet. Or, as quiet as it could be with kids shouting on the playground a few yards away.

“You’re okay, vod'ika.” Wolffe ran a hand through Comet’s hair, ruffling it somewhat. “As I said, you did what you were supposed to. I’ll pay better attention in the future." 

Comet propped his chin up on Wolffe’s chest and gave a tiny, sad smile. "Can I go swing with Sinker?”

“Yeah. Stick close to him." 

He took off, leaving Wolffe at the picnic table with the backpack and thoughts and feelings to sort through. 

—

When Sinker and Comet were finally ready to venture out to the rest of the zoo, they had time left for one more exhibit before they had to meet up with Boost and buir for the fluorescence demonstration. The sun had begun to set, casting long shadows and an orange glow over everything. Light jackets, tucked into the proper backpacks before the groups had split, were thrown on as the evening chill settled in.

Comet kept squinting, even with his hat back on, as they made their way to the birds of prey, which they had compromised on. Wolffe took off his sunglasses and gave them to Comet. He could handle more stares if it meant his vod'ika was more comfortable. 

This time, Wolffe made sure he had a hand in both his brothers. Sinker to his right, Comet to his left. This way, even if he couldn’t physically see one of them, he still had the reassurance they were still there. Neither protested; Comet looked like he’d have grabbed Wolffe’s hand if he hadn’t offered it first anyway.

His phone buzzed again. "Sinker?” he prompted. 

With his free hand, Sinker pulled out his own phone. “Boost sent another one of buir’s jokes.” He cleared his throat and put on an exaggerated drawl. “What’s the opposite of a fancy dog? A meerkat.”

“What’s a meerkat, again?” Comet asked, pulling himself closer to Wolffe’s side.

“Timon in Lion King is one,” Wolffe answered. 

The lightbulb above his head was almost visible. “Oh, yeah. We passed by them earlier, didn’t we?”

Two nods in response. “Yeah, you were more eager to see the giraffes,” Sinker said. 

Comet nodded to himself. The trio lapsed into silence until they were in sight of the “Yavin Birds of Prey Aviary”. 

Silence accompanied the trio at this exhibit, the antithesis of the penguin cove. Had that really been that morning? Not even twelve hours ago. Force, what a long day it became. If someone had told Wolffe a few days ago that today would consist of splitting into groups per his own suggestion, losing Comet, finding Comet, a gazillion dad jokes, and a fluorescence demonstration, he’d have laughed in their face.

“Only the owls are really awake,” Comet noted, his voice ringing in the nigh-empty room. 

Wolffe gave a low hum in acknowledgment. He leaned against some railing or another, watching the other two walk about. One other couple stood by the eagles, dead on their feet and swaying towards each other. Looks like it had been a long day for everyone.

The skylights drifted from deep orange to violet to navy to black, slow and delicate, soothing over the aches of the day like a worn, favored blanket. Had they been out in the country, a dazzling array of stars would have poked through the endless black, displaying the galaxy for all. So close to the city, the small pinpricks were satellites and planes, a backdrop to the skyline filled with lighted windows and blank spaces. 

It was easy to lose track of time staring at such a sight. Time was an odd, fickle thing. Stretching anxious situations longer, shortening precious moments to a blur. Freezing in place when contemplating the world, galaxy, universe. All too much yet far too little.

“How much longer?” Sinker asked, sliding up next to Wolffe, snapping him from his reverie. 

As if on cue, their phones buzzed.

Booster Seat

You guys need to hurry up this is amazing

Buir is DECKED in glow sticks

Grr

Proof or it didn’t happen

Booster Seat

Attached: Plo-more-like-Glo-Koon.jpeg

Stinker

Oh, I have to save that

Grr

Same

Stinker

What an icon

Booster Seat

He says thank you Sinker

Stinker 

Lol 

“With that amount of glow sticks, he’ll be easy to find,” Sinker commented. 

Comet stood on tiptoe, trying to get a peak. Wolffe lowered his phone and showed him the picture. His eyebrows shot towards his hairline. “Woah. I didn’t know that many could even fit on a person.”

“He’s a giant, walking glow stick,” Wolffe agreed, putting the phone up and extending his hands to his brothers. Energy renewed thrummed between them again. They had a presentation to crash. “Let’s go.” 

—

How do you find a giant, walking, glow stick of a dad? By having eyes. Given that it was a fluorescent show, everything was aglow in neon greens, blues, pinks, and oranges. But all of those in close proximity and moving? Easily buir, and a sight to see. Not even the trees had that many glow sticks on them. 

“I’m glad you all decided to stick around,” buir greeted them. They all let it go, teetering on the edge of exhaustion that would be whisked away when the festivities began soon.

Rather, all but Sinker. “You’re my ride home, I had to stay,” he grumbled. The lights reflected off his silver hair, tie-dying it bright and eye-catching, hats and sunglasses having been taken off at the aviary. Groans rang out.

“Somehow he made it worse,” Wolffe caught Boost griping under his breath.

“How was the end of your day?” buir asked politely. “Boost and I had a zootastic time.”

Sinker gave a half-hearted shrug but responded, “Tiring,” when Boost nudged him in the ribs. 

“It was a unique experience,” Comet replied smartly.

“We survived,” Wolffe said. Buir turned to him, and he stepped closer, addressing the perplexed expression. Making sure the others couldn’t hear, he expanded. “Something happened that might make Comet a bit jumpy for the rest of the night. We took care of it. It can wait until tomorrow when we aren’t so tired.” 

Buir clasped him on the back. “Good to know. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Wolffe let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He turned back to his brothers. “What do you snots want to do first?” They all mocked offense and gave their answers, launching into a night of fun.

They quickly found out there aren’t many naturally bioluminescent creatures on land, and most of them were small and creepy crawlers. Glowworms and fireflies, and a certain kind of snail. Marine animals, on the other hand, there were aplenty. The ones the zoo did have were on display: a respectable aquarium for various fish and a glass case with the terrestrial ones. Zookeepers who had a penchant for acting put on multiple shows that were “fun and edumacational” for kids. 

Worm-on-a-strings that glowed had been handed out, along with glow sticks. Every Koon had at least one glow stick bracelet on; Boost later sneak-attacked them into wearing some on their heads. Comet got a glow-in-the-dark penguin painted on his cheek. 

Giant, glow stick tic tac toe. Making zoo animals out of glow sticks. Neon, bright bubbles that, when popped, left a burst of color on what it landed. One station directed how to make a firefly jar to— temporarily, they stressed— hold the bugs. Ring tosses with bracelets, glowing paints. A certain presentation involved tossing various glow sticks into the air as responses to what the kids learned. 

Vivacious and vibrant in the dark, laughter and cheers filled the night as friends, families, and strangers shared a luminous evening to remember.

—

Wolffe stared at the picture frame in his hands. The frame was decorated with animals of all shapes and sizes, the small zoo logo in the left corner. Inside the frame rested a picture of the Koon brothers, covered in glow sticks and worn out but all with various sizes of smiles plastered on. His younger brothers had raced to the computer to print out the picture as soon as they stepped back inside their home. A better print-out, on photo paper and not copy paper, was to be printed in the next few days, but they had wanted Wolffe to have the picture as soon as possible.

“Now you’ll have something to take to college to remember today,” Comet had insisted. Boost and Sinker had nodded fervently in agreement.

Their last stop of the night had been at the small shop by the exit. Buir had decided to let them all get one reasonable thing as a memento, especially since their trips to the zoo were few and far between with their usually busy schedule. 

Comet found a stuffed rockhopper penguin and immediately named it Vandor— it looked like penguins were setting up to be his latest obsession. Boost got a zoology book which, looking back at his actions throughout the day, made sense. Sinker wanted Wolffe to get a tiny wolf figurine but got it for himself when Wolffe told him no. 

That had been the turning point. As much as Wolffe insisted he didn’t need to get anything, Sinker pressed that he did. Soon enough, Comet and Sinker had banded together with him. They scoured the shop for the perfect object. When they approached him with the frame and a picture picked out, he couldn’t say no. His vision might have blurred for a moment but they didn’t need to know that. 

A knock at his bedroom door had him set the frame back down on his desk. He rose and opened the door. There stood Comet. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep? It’s late, vod’ika.”

“I know, but I was having a hard time falling asleep. Can I sleep in here instead?”

After what they had gone through today, it was the least he could do. “Fine. No snoring.” Comet gave him a lopsided grin and slipped past him. He launched himself onto Wolffe’s bed, digging himself into the covers. 

“What?” he asked cheekily when Wolffe turned to look at him.

Wolffe rolled his eyes half-heartedly. “I’ll go get ready for bed. No drooling on my pillow, either.”

Comet gave him a mock salute as he went to brush his teeth.

Twenty minutes later, Boost came in to grab something from his desk. He paused when he saw Wolffe lying on his bed, Comet draped across his left side on his stomach, arms and legs sprawled out. Wolffe was scrolling through his phone, the lights off. Boost opened his mouth to say something but Wolffe glared at him and put a finger to his lips. “He just fell asleep,” he whispered.

Boost hesitated. Instead of grabbing whatever he came for, he grabbed his pajamas and started to get ready for bed. When done, he walked over to Wolffe’s bed. “Dogpile!” he exclaimed softly, before flopping straight down onto the mattress and his older brother. Wolffe let out an “oof” at the impact but otherwise didn’t react as Boost settled in.

Ten minutes after that, Sinker slinked into the room. “Wolffe?” 

Wolffe grunted and moved a hand from his face which belonged to a still awake and very annoying Boost. Sinker took that as his cue to come over. He was already in his pajamas and his eyebrows furrowed as he took in what was happening.

Boost had positioned himself on his side against Wolffe’s right side, right under Wolffe’s elbow which was bent from holding his phone up. He’d taken to bugging Wolffe by throwing his hand out and letting it rest wherever it landed and waiting to see if Wolffe would move it or not. It got old real quick. 

“Uh,” Sinker looked unsure how to continue. “I was gonna ask if you knew where Comet was since he wasn’t in his bed, but it looks like you’ve got an extra blanket there.”

Boost lifted his head slightly. “It’s a dogpile now. Join us!”

“More like a wolf pile,” Sinker quipped with a smirk. 

Siblings have to make things harder than necessary, of course, so Sinker climbed over all three of his brothers, lifted Comet to be even more on top of Wolffe, and squished himself into the space he made. “G’night, guys,” he mumbled. He made himself comfortable and was out like a light. 

Wolffe and Boost shared a look. “You better fall asleep that fast,” Wolffe said, nudging the top of Boost’s head with his elbow. 

“Only if you get off your phone.”

“Deal.”

Little did they know, as buir went to check on his boys like he did every night before heading to bed himself, he felt the need to check on the older two’s room first. The door had been opened a smidge, the lights off. He knocked gingerly and cracked the door open more. 

There were his boys, all cuddled up and fast asleep, somehow all fitting on the twin bed. Warthog had wandered in at one point and was curled up against their feet. His chest filled with warmth as he observed the sight. He took a picture or two, smiling to himself. On his way out, he made sure to close the door. What a sweet sight after a draining day. It was begging to be shared in the Fett parents chat.

—

Chat: Fett Dynasty

Think Outside The Fox

Jate vaar’tur, my lovely aliit

Attached: wolfpack-snuggles.jpeg

[Multiple people are typing]

Werewolf? There Wolffe!

N O T A W O R D 

[37 new messages]

-

Mando’a Translations

Buir: parent

Vod’ikase: Little brothers (plural)

Aliit: Family

Ori’vod: Big brother

Wayii: Good grief! 

Vod’ika: Little brother (singular)

Ad’ika: Little one, son, daughter

Adike: Plural of Ad’ika (see above)

Di’kut: Idiot

Ka’ra gaa'tayl kaysh: Stars help him. 

Jate vaar’tur: Good morning

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. Congrats on getting to the end! 

[sad-goomy]

iron & cream - fantasy

Day 4 of Bederia Week

Read the rest on Ao3

Bede makes a strange first impression on everyone in Postwick.

It doesn’t help that he has to watch himself, has to carefully mind his wording lest he accidentally gain control of someone’s name, or have them incur a debt, and while Victor and Gloria’s mother brush it off with polite smiles, Hop is...

Well, he’s Hop.

They meet on the second day of his visit, just outside the pub in Wedgehurst that Hop and Victor have taken to frequenting, and he sticks his hand out with a wide smile as he greets with a small-town charm that must come second-nature to him, “Take it you’re the infamous Bede, then? The one who’s been keeping our Gloria out of trouble.”

Gloria clicks her tongue in disapproval while Victor smirks at her, and Bede only stares at the outstretched hand being offered. There’s no harm in him shaking hands with a mortal, he knows this, and yet he finds that the very idea of shaking Hop’s hand makes him want to gag. He looks back up at the boy’s face as his smile falters slightly, and Bede realizes just what’s wrong here.

Hop is exactly the type who’s terrorized him in his life, the boy who’s nearly a local celebrity and rides the coattails of a family legacy while having fun pointing and laughing at the local weirdo who comes from nothing.

(Never mind that he hasn’t done anything like that in the past thirty seconds, and that some of this bias might be due to how long he hugged Gloria upon seeing her.)

“You may call me Bede,” he finally replies, when the silence stretches just south of uncomfortable, his hands still buried deep into the pockets of his coat as he puts a little extra sneer in his tone, “And what may I call you?”

Gloria elbows him sharply in the side, but he doesn’t flinch, instead focusing all of his attention on puffing up his chest, on using all his old tactics to make it clear that he isn’t one to be needled and poked at like a science experiment. Hop blinks, taking back his hand as he shares a look with Victor and an uneasy chuckle slips past his lips. “Bit formal, innit?”

His fae pride bristles, and he opens his mouth to snap something far less playful back when Gloria beats him to the punch, nearly stepping between the two as she quickly supplies, “Ballonlea thing.” She turns to look up at Bede, her voice tight and glare warning. “You can call him Hop.”

Then, as if this can’t get any worse, Hop gives him another bright smile and slings his arm around Bede’s shoulders, the fae flinching at how casual this all is, as Hop leads him into the pub with a laugh. “Didn’t mean to poke fun at it, mate – first round is on me.”

This is the moment Bede decides he hates Hop.

...

Of course, try as he might to avoid Hop, Bede’s still forced to be around him if he wants to spend any actual time with Gloria during the holiday.

She calls him out on it once, when they’re taking off their boots and coats at the front door. Gloria fixes him with a look as Victor quickly scurries off to the kitchen, clearly sensing the tension in the air.

“Play nice.”

“I’m perfectly polite,” he jabs back, adjusting his sweater.

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms with a pout. “You’re bloody frigid with Hop is what you are. He’s been nothing but kind to you, but every time he says something to you, I swear you’re going to send an evil eye his way.”

And to be fair, he nearly did on the walk back just now, when Hop caught him staring at a baby in the family they passed – strange side effect of fae heritage, a growing fascination in human children and their delicate fates – and pointed it out. It was a lighthearted joke, something about being a family man that Bede’s already forgotten, but it was still enough to have him consider manifesting a patch of ice under Hop’s feet.

Gloria sighs, shoulders slumping as her eyes turn into a plea. His stomach drops a little as he feels the disappointment radiating off of her, can see the dulling of her aura as she pleads, “You don’t have to be his new best friend, but please, I really want you to get along a little. He’s like my second brother and you’re...”

He holds her gaze, and his heart beats faster as her cheeks grow pink. It’s just a second of hesitation, but then she’s clearing her throat, looking down at her mismatched socks as her aura blooms, warm and radiant and all for him.

“You’re really important to me.”

Something in him melts, and he feels heat crawling up his neck and over his cheeks as he pulls at his shirt collar, desperate to cover his face.

“...I’ll be nicer.”

She looks up with a lopsided smile and takes a step closer, wrapping her arms around his neck and drowning him in a warmth that he finds harder and harder to live without as she whispers into the crook of his neck, “Thank you.”

This is the moment Bede decides he can tolerate Hop.

...

It occurs to him in the space between Christmas and New Years that he hasn’t had cream in a while.

Unfortunately, it occurs to him at two in the morning and in a slight craze, as his stomach clenches and he tries to not stumble loudly down the steps from the guest room and to the kitchen. He opens the fridge, eyes scanning for anything that could fill the craving that’s clawing at his insides, but finds nothing immediately.

As he continues to dig around, shuffling tupperware and condiments, he misses the light footsteps coming into the kitchen from the living room.

“Oi mate, everything all right?”

Bede does not shriek, mind you, but he certainly jumps several inches into the air and lets out a noise that has him convinced he’s just woken up everyone else in the house.

Miraculously, there’s no movement upstairs, leaving him to turn slowly and find Hop (who had crashed on the couch after a movie marathon with Victor) scratching at his side underneath his shirt, one eye closed and the other barely cracked open.

“Take that as a ‘no’ then,” he mumbles through a yawn.

Bede doesn’t even consider coming up with some acidic retort, because he promised Gloria and he’s also in dire straits. Instead, he swallows his pride as best he can and takes a deep breath before fixing Hop with a look that’s so somber, it has the other boy actually waking up.

“I need cream.”

Hop blinks, eyes flickering from Bede’s face to the glowing fridge behind him. “Like, literal cream or...?”

“Yes, literal,” he huffs, turning to close the fridge door and leaving them in the low light of the moon through the kitchen window – which is somehow making this entire situation worse – and explaining, “I think they’ve run out.”

“Well, the closest grocery store is in Wedgehurst, and they don’t open until eight. Can you uh, wait until then?”

Bede gives him a look that communicates, even in the dark, that he absolutely cannot wait until then. His body is already screaming at him, and he suspects if he goes another hour without it, he may very well lose what little control he has over his powers. The last thing he needs is to out himself as a fae to Gloria’s family and best friend by turning someone’s hair green over a cream deficiency.

Hop gets the message loud and clear, chuckling under his breath as he holds his hands up in surrender. “Whoa, okay, got it.”

Without another word, Hop turns and exits out of the kitchen, heading towards the front door. Bede raises a brow, confusion cutting through his haze as he follows and watches the other boy throw on his coat and pull on his shoes.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“Popping over to my place real quick.” Hop pats his left coat pocket, checking for something that is apparently there since he smiles and nods. “My mum’s a big baker, she’ll definitely have heavy cream. Just a pint okay?”

He’s not sure what he expected, but it surprises Bede all the same as he mumbles, “Yeah, that’s enough.”

“Right then, be right back.”

The front door clicks closed quietly behind him, leaving Bede to stand in the front hall and wonder what the hell is happening. He paces, losing track of time as the cream craving comes back and fogs his mind, along with questions of why on earth Hop is being so damn nice to him. It’s not like he’s been much better than stand-offish at best, and he’d be hard-pressed to walk in the cold in the middle of the night to get something out of his own fridge for a near stranger.

By the time Hop knocks on the door and Bede lets him in, he’s no closer to an answer other than inching closer to the realization that Hop is actually nothing like the boys who used to torment him in primary school; there’s a reason Gloria keeps him around, after all.

When Bede’s swallowed half the pint of heavy cream in a single gulp, clarity comes back to him. He wipes the back of his mouth, looking to Hop, who watches the whole thing with more than a little curiosity but not a single word.

“I owe you.”

It’s less an expression of gratitude and more a statement of fact, as Bede can see his aura intermingling with Hop’s now, pink and indigo linking as his fae nature compels him to return the favor.

But Hop just shakes his head, his arms behind his head as he stretches out his back and gives Bede a smile. “All good, although...actually yeah, I guess I sort of have a favor to ask.” When Bede remains silent, Hop continues on, growing sheepish as he mumbles, “Just, uh, can you keep looking out for Glo? She was real nervous moving all the way out to Ballonlea, and I’m glad she has someone like you around to keep her head on her shoulders.”

Bede takes another sip of cream, fixes Hop with a look, and feels the last of his acidity towards him fade out of his body as a corner of his lips quirk up.

“Of course I will.”

And in the morning, when Bede wakes up with the cold dread of Hop bringing up this entire ordeal to everyone and making fun of him, he finds that Hop keeps quiet about it, instead making conversation about how everyone slept and how he can help with breakfast.

This is the moment Bede decides he likes Hop.

...

New Year’s in Postwick actually takes place in a pub in Wedgehurst, which immediately becomes more crowded when Hop’s brother arrives with his girlfriend, Sonia (and it takes Bede no less than five minutes to recover from the fact that Hop is related to Leon, Leon of Wyndon United, Leon the star footballer nicknamed the Champion of Galar).

As they get closer to the actual countdown, Gloria tugs on his hand and leads him to the backroom, away from the crowd. He follows along, more than happy to actually have room to breathe for once tonight, and maybe a little happy that he’s alone with her in a hallway by the bathrooms as she rests her head on his shoulder and keeps holding his hand.

She looks up at him, eyes slightly hazy with the two glasses of cheap champagne in her system, and she sighs with a smile, “Thanks again for coming.”

He nods, doesn’t have anything else to say that won’t give him away, because he may also be slightly tipsy but it’s certainly not enough to have him really letting go of his multitude of inhibitions.

“And for giving Hop a chance,” she mumbles, thinking for a moment before adding with a giggle, “I know he gives you a hard time sometimes, but that’s how you know he likes you.”

The countdown is starting in the front, muffled all the way back here, but it seems to be the catalyst Bede needs to lean down closer to her, gripping her hand tighter as he looks into her eyes with a smirk.

“He might be the only one who likes me.”

Gloria seems to get the same idea, feel the same string of tension holding them back snap as the crowd chants the final seconds of this past year away.

“Now we both know that’s not true.”

The pub crowd roars as the new year rolls around, but Bede can’t hear it because Gloria’s kissing him and it’s even better than what he’s been imagining ever since they got on the train to Postwick. She has one hand on his cheek and the other on his chest, right above his heart as she presses her lips to his with that lopsided smile he loves so much, and she’s warm and green and he swears there are sparks.

Then there are actual sparks and Gloria pulls back with a slight yelp that turns into a laugh as Bede groans, resigning himself to his fate of jolts of glittering magic zapping off his body and into his air, unable to control it and unable to really care.

At least, not until a familiar voice gasps behind him, “Mate are you sparkling?”

They pale, slowly turning to find Hop standing in the hall, a party horn dangling out of the corner of his mouth as he watches Bede glitter and sparkle with wide, confused eyes.

This is the moment when Bede realizes he has to tell Hop he’s part fae.

[dotthings]

SPN 14.09

*does the called it dance*

There’s a dance party going on, I know a lot of people called it. I am un-shocked, but filled with evil glee. Er...I mean this is very painful and going to be painful and it’s going to be a lot of suffering but this is also a mood

All right who wants actual character thoughts now that I’m done flailing around screaming.

Is Cas...eating the cookie cereal? He’s eating the cookies. He’s making contented crunching noises. Cas doesn’t need to eat, but he’s eating. I feel like I said something recently about Cas becoming more human, slowly, oh right, it was about him actually being drunk in 14.07 on a few bottles when back in S5, even at low power, he needed an entire liquor store. Now he’s eating cookie crisps cereal. That scene was cute af, btw and ties back to what I’ve been saying about Jack’s increasing emotional IQ. He talked about worrying about his mom because of the threats to Heaven, and then brought up Castiel’s deal, because it worries him. 

Oh, yes Sam and Dean can know about the deal but Cas doesn’t want them to so it won’t “burden them.” CASTIEL WINCHESTER YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN. Only no wait, but it is a burden and Cas realizes it and why it is a burden, because THEY CARE ABOUT HIM A LOT AND CAS KNOWS IT AND THAT IS WHY HE DOESN’T *WANT* THEM TO KNOW. As I said in my sneak peek commentary, it’s not anger or being caught out Cas fears. He simply doesn’t want to make them worry, make them sad, or scared, for him. He doesn’t want to be a burden but it’s too late, they all love him. 

We’re inching more and more here towards Cas realizing just how much or he wouldn’t very specifically and deliberately be hiding this secret because he knows how much it will worry them and Sam and Dean will scramble to find a way out for him and fix it and it’s almost like Cas hates being the center of attention and worried over. He has to be the strong one, not the one who needs help. This is how Cas keeps going.

Dean and Cas in an actual junk-yard scene (ok technically a recycling facility), I am still not over this and never will be and all the things I already yelled about after the sneak peek was released. Dean and Cas starting far apart with the Impala as negative space between them, but not negative space because that’s one of the show’s biggest symbols of home, then moving closer and closer like magnets until their shoulders are brushing. Screw you Dean and Cas and your acting married body language. 

Cas talking to Dean about how happy Dean seems, Cas looking super uncomfortable about not!telling Dean about the deal. I already posted about this but let me recap now that I’ve seen the whole ep--the “win” thing went right over Cas’s head because he doesn’t know, but the audience does. But Cas is mainly all about not!telling Dean about the deal and wow all my pre-game meta on this about Cas not wanting them to worry and that’s why he’s secretive got vocalized in the cereal eating scene in the kitchen. So. There you go.

Dean talking to Cas about what Sam and Cas went through when they were possessed in relation to his own experience, thank you Robert Berens for openly vocalizing, finally, Sam and Dean and Cas’s shared trauma, I have been waiting 84 years. 

(Pausing to scream about the January promo which shows Sam and Cas going together into Dean’s mind. I LOVE SEASON 14).

Which btw now that I’ve brought that ep, Cas’s worry about Sam touchstoned several times in this ep gives me feelings. Dean and Cas were both worried about him...and then Sam and Cas are going to team to save Dean. 

TFW and TFW 2.0 are both running concurrently strong in this season. There’s the interplay Sam, Dean, and Cas have, with its long seasons of history, and there’s the Sam-Dean-Cas-Jack, which is newer territory but slowly getting its hooks into my heart. They’re all valid, with their various relationships therein. 

Garth, awww. Admittedly I was not warm on this character when he first showed up upteen seasons ago but he’s turned out to be a really great part of the SPN world and a good friend and thank goodness SPN didn’t kill him. 

Sam and Garth friendship *draws hearts*.

Garth saying he’s doing this for his little girl is interesting,  it’s him talking as part of his cover, but has a double meaning because it’s also 100% true he’s just lying about which side he’s really on. He is going dangerously undercover to help stop Michael, thinking of his child’s future, to protect the world. While we had Cas just last week sacrificing himself to save his son. Which echoed back to Jimmy Novak sacrificing himself for his daughter. 

I like Sam and Jack working together, with Jack having taught himself lock-picking on the internet. For a moment I thought Jack was going to say Dean taught him and I was a little sorry it wasn’t that, but interesting Jack said “I like to keep myself useful”--that’s the Cas part of him talking. He is still trying to prove himself without his powers. Skipping ahead here as relevant--back to Jack’s slowly increasing emotional IQ and his character development. Because I was wondering if things would get to that, with Jack on strong enough footing to start looking after his dads, and it’s starting. He talks to Cas about the deal. Then when hyper-charged Garth knocks down Sam, Jack tackles him to save Sam. Which was stupid and brave, nobody hurts moose dad when Jack is around. Having been saved, and sacrificed for, Jack’s now moving more into a position of being part of the team, looking after others. 

And not, note, taking on a parent role, but he is looking after his dads as they look after him. I am really curious in fact how Jack is going to talk about possessed Dean now. The arc about Jack’s knee jerk comment about Michael Dean early in the season has been addressed and resolved before this ep, and they’ve bonded a lot closer since...so I’d really like to see how Jack is going to deal with it. 

I’m completely distracted by Dean and Cas inside the recycling facility looking for Dark Kaia and the spear, all of it, the way Dean and Cas move together, work together out in the field, which we don’t get to see enough of, I am transfixed. They have this silent rapport we’ve seen all the way back to late S7 at least and the BAMF power couple vibe going on, what with Dean’s strength as a hunter and Cas’s powers and warrior attitude and I’m just going to sit here and scream quietly to myself about that whole sequence for a minute.

And then they’re BICKERING oh my god so married shut up, until oops Kaia sticks the spear against Dean’s back and Cas just says “Dean” as a warning and he goes so incredibly still holy shit--with the point of that spear threatening Dean. Cas wants to surge forward and Dean waves him down. *yells a lot about Dean and Cas and their thing* Cas is so very protective of Dean here it’s doing things to me.

Dark Kaia’s little face is tugging at my heart. Who is it she’s protecting? Yes, why is she there, I need answers, I need to know what’s the link with her and Kaia. I need more of this please. S14 being what it is I think I’ll get it, just not right now.

The TFW 2.0 power walk set to Ode to Joy. I FEEL SO CALLED OUT RIGHT NOW.

Badass Dean having the moves with that spear, after being a goofball with it in the garage...I think there really isn’t a weapon Dean can’t use, pick up quickly how to use, plus he’s used similar weapons and adrenaline, he instinctively could use the spear. He’s not as good as Kaia, and guess what people, it is 150% okay he’s not as good as Kaia with that spear, he’s not supposed to be. Kaia has thousands of hours with that spear and Dean doesn’t, but look how good Dean is instinctually. 

Ouch my Dean feelings. Well I’ve been saying and saying the Michael Dean story wasn’t over and here we are and like many people ran with the sleeper agent/back door hack theory and here we are. The snap. Good god damn Jensen is excellent. And TFW 2.0 looks as ragged and stunned as the last Avengers standing.

So Michael has access to all of Dean’s memories. And Dean just “wouldn’t stop squirming.” Because of his ties to his family.

To you...to all of you.

For me and Jack, and family.

You’re going to bring him back...you’re going to bring ‘em all back.

I love you...I love all of you.

And you really can’t dismiss Destiel here while saying w*ncest is valid, because then you’d have to say the Destiel is valid. But the fact of the matter is these are different kinds of relationships, in canon. It makes sense that Sam got a more singular shout-out but then Michael adds the “all of you.” Sam is the most constant figure in Dean’s life and he is closest to Sam on a lot of levels. There’s bound to be a lot of Sam in Dean’s brain. But it’s not just about Sam. 

This is something SPN keeps underscoring in triple day-glo yellow highlighter. Nor does it fit to claim that because of this scene, therefor it proves Sam is the only most important one because in other storylines, Cas has also been demarcated out as different/unique in how Dean feels about him. BTW, seeing a romantic reading for Destiel doesn’t mean having to then say oh w*ncest is then therefore canon, because it’s just not, and those relationships are written completely differently. The canon undercurrents are completely different. Sam and Dean’s bond is what it is, and it’s strong, it is platonic and intended as platonic, while Destiel is...ambiguous in intent, in canon. For non-shippers, say the relationships are brothers, and like-brothers, and leave it there. It really is more complicated than that on the Destiel front, but I talk about that plenty in other posts, right now, I’m really thinking uppermost about Dean and his family. Sam isn’t the only one tethering Dean and keeping him fighting inside Michael. That was for all of them. So this was a bro bond shout-out that landed at TFW 2.0. 

And look what’s in the promo...Sam and Cas going together into Dean’s mind to try to save him. Dean’s closest to Sam, Cas is close to Dean in other ways. They both have a bond with Dean that is unique and strong and I’m just going to have to go sob in the corner that SPN is really going to do that and have them go in together and poke around in Dean’s mind to pull him out of this. Using the same method Dean used to go into Mary’s mind. *small keening noise*

Also I refuse to accept Dean is really as down and out in there as Michael claims. But maybe he’s buried himself deep in some sort of happy mental spaces. Which is something I was thinking about before the season started, and then they didn’t show us and I let it go but maybe it’s going there after all. 

[tamiddyinyourcity]

11:56am.

My piss can glow in the dark I bet.

Clearly, I am a pinnacle of health.

(I've eaten mainly cereal and milk on loop, despite being lactose intolerant, and I'm not sure why my piss looked like someone snapped a glo stick open, but, guess it does.)

Monday, May 11th of 2020.

Life updates:

The 2nd date with Cameron was really bad. Yikes. I didn't really get much out of him in terms of why he said he "was more stressed out than happy" in the.... what.... one movie night, and otherwise not talking for a single day until the second movie night binge we had? Seemed sus. I did the normal thing and just gave him a list of things not to do to someone else. (I say "normal" mockingly, I am the only person I know that does this. BUT they usually end up reflecting and being introspective, so weird or not, they do learn something.)

Depressed, but I showered, so smelling like cake and tropical fruits always makes me smell better. And feel lovely. I look and smell so damn good, I swear to gosh, self love is truly a blessing to have. Just gotta look in the mirror like "Holy shit, I look so nice???? Look at that sisssss!!!!", and boom, feeling awesome. Someone can accuse me of being narcissistic all they want, but I'd probably still love myself, whether I had weight gain, was disfigured spontaneously, or anything really. I'm not gonna manifest that anytime soon, since I'm manifesting health and peace of mind for myself and ambitions, but I genuinely wish to love myself as much as possible from now on.

The only downside about not showering for..... who knows, is that now I gotta wash my bedsheets in the shitty washing machines across the way in another complex. It's something to do, I suppose!

Spent a fat stack (and by "fat stack" i mean like 40 bucks) on a brand that sells glittery almond oil for the skin and hair. I could've just bought normal almond oil to make my fro grow and make my skin scars fade up, buuuuut.... g l i t t e r. My favorite hobby of wearing things that make me feel or look ethereal kinda trumps common sense, so if you see me late summer with sparkly undereye glitter or my hair shining like a disco ball, mind ya fookin business ya hear?

The girl (who was patiently helping me, since executive dysfunction mixed with panic and overall how much I loathe internet buying) thanked me a lot for that. How nice of her. I guess I am forgetting it's a pandemic. Hope the money helps her out, since her product is gonna help my hair grow and my skin glow. (And then I'm gonna let that man go.)

I gotta go to the bank today.... Low energy. They say they're limiting whoever enters banks... sigh. I just wanna uber and throw my cash into an ATM, not pick up the phone and CALL to schedule a time to come.... Why, lord?

I'm gonna blow 50 dollars on a wig. I'll do it, before I can remind myself that I have a large bin of wigs that I do not wear. Or my history with large or long thick wigs getting tangled or swallowing my skinny ass whole. But fuck it. Life is short. I wanna look sexy for myself with long flowing waves and glowing skin and spend my days putting on lotion, and adoring myself in a mirror. (Half satire, half truth.)

I miss picnics and charcuterie boards. I wanna eat grapes and meat with cheese with someone. And maybe whiskey. Or Jameson. Or Caprisuns. I wanna eat adult lunchables next to the watersiiiiide, bitch can the world figure out if its gonna reach an impending death SOON or what..... Hell, I gotta try not to blow all my money so fast. Since sadly, moving to Italy isn't an option right now, and I don't know too many other places to run to for a situation like this. But if I can at least keep enough money in my account to get a few months of my storage unit paid off and safe, I should be alright.

I should probably meal prep again soon. I need the energy. Nonstop Fruity Pebbles is borderline an ED by then, and sure it got me the "ooooh your waist is SO tiny girl gone head!", compliments.... it doesn't make up for being unable to get out of my bed, you know?

Anyway.

12:34pm.

Gonna go to the bank. Dump my cash.

Then get back home.

Bet people aren't gonna wear masks.

How gross.

[opaloremerald]

Chapter one  (in current editing stage)

My broom sputtered a little as I stopped for a break from my long flight to school. The village that I landed in was small and still had traditional German houses with thatch roofs. My feet touched to the ground a few yards from the outside of town in a dense forest, and, as I walked out to the dirt road leading onto the main square I snapped my broom into its smaller form, a polished hairpiece. As whipped up my hair and stuck my broom in to keep it up, small tufts of dust were kicked as I walked down the deserted way. It was like a sickness rushed in and cleared the life out of the town. 

I peeked into a few windows as I looked for the mercantile shop. I passed an inn with a few new-looking bikes on the rack, but I saw no rustling of the curtains or movement in the parlor. My eyes bounced around on different abandoned buildings and a couple of one-story houses until they landed on the mercantile. I stepped over to the shop quickly, suddenly feeling eyes on my back. The sensation was unnerving. As my feet crossed over the threshold a spark cracked through my bones. I turned my head to look out the grimy window of the mercantile to see the abandoned square, a dry fountain in the middle. I inspected each window, trying to see an edge of a face as I saw my reflection in the pane of my own waypoint. After a long minute of watching I turned back into the cluttered store I had walked into. Cans of food were clustered in small pyramids by shelves of perishables. I looked at a few parcels of jerky and took one in my gloved hand.

My satchel bumped against a shelf as I checked how many coins I had in my money belt. Four silvs, twelve clohs and a glo. The glo itself would probably get me a few parcels of jerky and cheese, but the silvs would get me one of each, and I was saving the glo for later. One cloh would help me replenish my broom with a bundle of fabric and a little to spare. As I thought about if I should buy some ink and quills for school and not have to borrow the ones at school or buy a new cloak so I wouldn’t seem old-fashioned to my friends a tug came at the edge of my tunic. I startled and skittered to one side, looking at a small boy with floppy brown hair and a nose smattered with freckles. His big blue eyes turned up to mine and his mouth opened to ask a question. But instead of a sweet, melodic voice, a screech came out of the tiny voice. And, as soon as that screech came out of his mouth, more started to sound. Other screeches came from the back room, the street outside, the neighboring houses, almost everywhere.

I glanced at the shelf beside me, at the bundle of fabric, cloak and ink. I turned my attention back to the boy and the ongoing screech that was almost deafening. I looked back at the shelf, my hand raising to the hairpiece that was my broom. My wand was in a secure pocket in my satchel and I had no way to get to it. A plan was forming in my head as I pulled out two silvs, and four clohs, setting them on the shelf next to my arm as I pulled out my broom. It lengthened to its full form and I swept the parcel of jerky in my hand, the bundle of cloth and two quills and a bottle of ink into the cloak and tied it up at the end. I pushed the bundle onto the front of my broom and jumped on.

Bursting out of the door of the cluttered mercantile, I finally saw the people of the town. They were staring at me, mouths full of the horrendous sound they made. As I spiraled up into the air I looked down underneath me, staring at the strange townspeople. 

“What the heck just happened?” I asked myself in French as I flew away from the town, looking for a spot to set down and rest for a little. I couldn’t rest for too long, though. I had to be at school tomorrow and tardy people would have to pick the fæ berries. Yuck.

The fæ were a small, humanoid life form that had wings and the power to control growth, like a nature elementalist. They only ate small, foul smelling berries that grew outside the school grounds in the bewitched thicket, and if you had to pick them it took about a million showers to get the stink out of your hair.

After I stopped and ate a little food in a small clearing, I took the bundle of cloth and my broom, wrapping it around the stick of the over the previous layer of fabric. The cloth protected the smooth wood of the stick from the harsh cold up in the north where I took holiday. I took a big bite of the cheese and another of jerky, then wrapped them back up in the parcel. It was only a few hours travel to school from where I had stopped to rest.  

I hopped up onto my newly wrapped broom and started up into the sky, spying only foliage underneath me. I started off east and knocked my broom into straight-travel mode so I could sort through my supplies in my bag without worrying about getting off course. I unwrapped the cloak from its bundle and latched the front around my neck, making sure the ink and quills were wrapped in some extra bits of fabric I had in my satchel so they wouldn’t bend or break. The cheese and jerky were already in their own parcels, so I could just grab a strip of burlap and catch up my hair in a ponytail

The journey to Serpentine Academy was long from my childhood home. It was somewhere in the middle of the United Kingdoms, and, sadly, I lived across the English Channel in France. It took me about three days to get to school as the broom flies and I was always just on time for the orientation speech.

The school was in sight as I started to practice racing stances and trick moves on the broom. The towers cut through the bitingly cold fog and I almost ran into one, swerving around it just in time. I tilted towards the ground, where many footprints stained the pristine white snow.

Dropping down to the matted snow path, I adjusted my cloak and snapped my broom into the small hairpiece. Shoving it into my ponytail, I walked up to the door, knocked three times, and waited impatiently. Soon, a fæ slid open the small sight to squint her tiny eyes at me.

“Name, year, ability and Take?” she squeaked.                                                                                                                                        

I rolled my eyes and rattled off the answers, “Emilie Beaumont, year 6, seer, Take Eiva.”

The fæ dutifully opened the wooden double doors and I stepped inside, relishing the warmth that the Great Hall provided me. The Great Hall had ceilings so high that a racer could trick ride from beginning to end. A large staircase in the middle of the hall led to the upper levels and many-a-doors in the hall held offices for teachers and staff. Two large wooden doors, identical to the main ones, opened into the dining hall, where girls of all ages sat at tables corresponding to their Take.

A Take is a place you were assigned to be in from your very first year, and there are eight years. Take Eiva, my take, is for people who come from farther away than normal. For instance, I am from France, one of my roommates, Sonya Gorbachav, is from Russia, and the other of my roommates, Adrianne Smith, is from Australia.

Some other Takes would be Take Una, where witches who wanted to live with humans, Take Yinzi, where foreign languages such as Fæ, Elv, Mermish, and Dwarf were learned, Take Lor was for the future witch historians, Take Verl is where the academy sticks the troublemakers—I would’ve been in this Take if it weren’t for Take Eiva—, and Take Cinta, where the richer kids were put. The Take Cinta girls hated the Take Eiva girls, but only because we didn’t buy our way into the good grace of the Headmistress, we just were liked by her. Really, my Take was just made as an afterthought. Serpentine Academy is the only witches-only school for miles. There’s another in America, but their teaching methods are too obscure for many Serpentine girls to comprehend.

I spotted Sonya in the middle of the Take Eiva table, glaring over at the next table, which was filled with Take Cinta girls, who were decked out with expensive jewelry and new brooms that were twisted up in their hair to make elaborate hairdos. I spun a few of my own earrings nervously as I sat down next to the air Sonya was glaring into.

“Is there a reason why you’re letting her look daggers into Skylar Jones’s new bejeweled broom?” I asked the air. My other roommate, Adrianne, materialized next to me, blocking Sonya’s view of the Cinta table.

“She always does it before you arrive to ask us about our break,” Adrianne said to me, “Anyway, why do you have all this snow on you, Emilie? You usually come in snow-free.”

I sighed and messed with my compacted broom. “I packed my wand too far into my satchel and I never had the time to dig it out. Oh, yeah! I want to tell you about the weirdest thing. I stopped in a weird town in Germany about—I don’t know, five hours ago?—and it was like a ghost town at first.”

“At first?” Sonya asked in her thick Russian accent. She twirled her dark coil of braid around her arm as she listened.

“Yeah, but when I went into the mercantile shop there was this spark that just went up my spine. After that I checked back outside to see if anyone had been outside to charm me or anything, but no one was outside the houses,” I explained, “it was so weird.”

“Was it one of your usual drop-byes, you know, the ones you go by for school every year?” Adrianne asked. I shook my head.

“My broom was winding down because of the weather. I just touched down to get some food and cloth, but I got this cloak and some ink and quills. Anyway, after I started looking around and picked out the stuff I wanted there was this little boy, looking at me. Of course, he scared me, so I kind-of jumped to the side. I think I scared him and he startesd to make this huge wailing noise. I stole the stuff got out of there as…”

The doors of the Dining hall flew open, cutting my story off, and Headmistress Christopher walked down the middle isle of the Takes’ tables. Everyone was silent as we watched our idol float down the way. The doors stayed open and the rest of the teachers walked to their designated seats solemnly.

Everyone was just about to stand up to recite the motto of Serpentine Academy when more people started filing into the Dining Hall.

Three boys to be exact.

Every girl in the hall froze as the boys went down the teacher’s tables.

As I told you earlier, Serpentine Academy is a girl’s school, so we barely ever see boys. I mean, we see them, but not at school.

Adrianne’s face dropped in surprise, Sonya’s did not. Her and I saw the boys waving at the Cinta table, totally ignoring the many other Takes of girls. I turned my back to the boys and started the long search for my wand in my satchel.

“This year we have many new students that are to be separated into Takes, but this year we have three new students who are going to be introducing the new side to our school,” Headmistress Christopher’s voice rang loud and clear as I shuffled some cheese to the side and found the slit I usually hid my wand in. I reached in the slit and produced my wand, a beautiful thing carved out of willow and cherry wood. It had a thin area where my thumb settled perfectly so I could cast spells quicker and more easily. The thing vibrated in my hand as I returned my broom to my hair and went to work polishing it with a scrap of cloth I had in my bag.

“And as well as having some male counterparts at school, this year we will skip our motto and get right into the separating of the first years,” Headmistress Christopher said, her wispy hair waving up in the sky as if it was in water. I rolled my eyes. Beautification magic, useless. I went back to polishing my wand.

The separating of the first years was pretty straightforward. The divining teacher, Ms. Crawley, placed her hand on the girl’s head and read what she was like. Ms. Crawley was a seer, like me, so she can see things that other people can’t.

“Jevo!” Ms. Crawley announced, meaning the Take for future officers of the Magician’s Law. I rubbed my head, trying not to get pulled into the same vision Ms. Crawley was having. If any normal witch or wizard touches a seer when they’re having a vision they see it too, but when another seer is around one having a vision, an invisible rope pulls them to the seer having the vision. And since, I’m the only seer other than Ms. Crawley at school, no one feels my pain.

“Avan!” the take for future politicians, “and last but not least, Eiva!”

My head jerked up as I saw a tiny little girl with white-wash blonde hair and the palest skin I’d ever seen skittering over to the Take Eiva table. She was a first year, who are all twelve, but looked so much younger than that. Her spot was a few people down on our sparsely populated table. Adrianne, Sonya and I were actually the oldest in our Take because the last few graduated two years ago.

“And these boys will be put into……” Ms. Crawley paused to add dramatic effect.

I whispered to my roommates, “I bet you five glohs that they are all going to be in Cinta.”

“No way!” Adrianne argued, “I bet they’re too nice to be in Cinta, right Sonya?”

Sonya shrugged, “I bet she split them up, no?”

“So, if I’m right get five glohs from both of you, got it?” I said just as Ms. Crawley announced, “CINTA!”

“Yes!” I hissed as my friends paid up.

“You cheated, didn’t you,” Adrianne said, “You had a vision.”

“When I have visions I usually finish them by coughing up blood, or I’ll have a nosebleed like Madame Crawley. So, no, I did not have a vision,” I said, putting the glohs in my coin belt and pushing my tunic over it.

Most of the time, girls were not allowed to have any money on campus, but I made the most money I ever could on campus, winning the witches’ game of Intercental. Intercental is the magician’s equivalent of poker. The older years of each Take—which meant year five to year eight—gathered in the library on the first and last Fridays of each month, and the day after the first day of school.

��And now it is time for lunch!” Headmistress Christopher called out in her strong British accent, waving her hands across the hall and making food appear. Everyone dug in hungrily, knowing we had to get to classes immediately after. I was the first to finish eating my feast at my table, so I decided to cut a glance at the Cinta table. The three boys were in a group near Skylar Jones and her groupies, flirting up a storm. I rolled my eyes again.

Skylar happened to glance up at the time I was rolling my eyes.

“Have a problem with something, Frog?” she called out to me in her hoity-toity accent. I scowled at her.

“Yes, indeed I do, Redcoat,” I growled back at her, turning all the way around so my back was against the table. Skylar lowered her perfect eyebrows at me and I arched one of my black ones. “Didn’t like that nickname, did you?”

“What is your problem?” Skylar asked, standing up suddenly.

“My problem?” I tapped my wand against my legging-clad leg in an annoyed way, “why do you torment all the girls in Take Eiva? They’re all my responsibility. You mess with them, you mess with me.”

“You’re only in year six,” Skylar said, smirking, “like me.”

“Unlike you, I’m the oldest in my take, so I actually have kids who look up to me for a good reason. Not looking at me with the desire to be me and filling themselves with self-hate, like half the girls in your Take,” I narrowed my eyes at her, daring her to defy me.

“At least I have the beauty for them to admire, you’re just an eyesore. And when you claim you have a ‘vision’ you make this whole scene. I say you’re just longing for attention,” she said, jabbing her perfectly manicured fingernail at me.

I rocketed up then, advancing at her, “Do you know how much blood I lose a year because of my ability? No, I bet you don’t, because you haven’t lost a drop of yours, and if you did, your rich daddy would buy a bag of blood and make sure you had every ounce in your body.”

Skylar’s face widened into a smile, “Hit a nerve there?”

“I challenge you to a game of Intercental tomorrow,” I said, then pointed at the boys, “and they will join you.”

The three boys, who had been watching on the sidelines looked at he people around them, trying to see if I was pointing at someone else. They obviously knew how to play. Everyone thirteen and older knew how to. There was an Intercental competition every year synonymous with the broom competitions, and I was MVP in both.

Skylar contemplated the challenge for a minute, then spoke, “I agree to your challenge.”

I smirked at her, but, right at the wrong moment, a warm stickiness encased my tongue. A tickle went up my throat and I covered my mouth, coughing onto my hand. My knees buckled as I started to fall to the ground.

“Don’t touch her!” Ms. Crawley called from the front of the Dining hall, but strong arms had already caught me and lowered me to the ground. My sight clouded as the vision took over my sight.

“You have the seer precautions up?” a dark voice asked in a smoky room. Not many things could be seen in the room, other than a table set up for Intercental

“Yessir, the charms are in place,” a younger voice echoed from the other side of the room. A head bobbed at the table as a person sat down across from it.

“The subject we are about to speak about is delicate and we can have absolutely no people listening in on it,” the first voice, which was coming from the man that was at the table in the first place.

“What is it?” a new voice asked, most likely the person who sat across from the man with the dark voice.

“We’ve realized that humans have this certain thing about them. This, ability to create magic, but not in any way we’ve been able to do. We’ve been trying to find a way to—”

“Honey?” a voice woke up a young girl and shook me out of what must’ve been her dream, “It’s time to get ready for school.”

She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed, curls bouncing in front of her face, “Mommy, I think I had a vision.”

The woman laughed out loud and sat next to her daughter. She had brown ringlets, matching her child’s blonde ones, “Seers are rare, and they skip a generation. Since I’m a seer, you couldn’t be one. You’re fine. No one is going to hurt you. That dream was just that, a dream. C’mon let’s get you dressed.”