Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a deal. He’s made them before. Like dealing with that demon in order to get Flippa baby’s first toy.

Not exactly like this is any different, he has both of them here currently for a new deal.

He knows they are one in the same, he knows they aren’t really true angels and demons, he would know after all. He knows his godly brothers don’t have domain over them. But they do have powers, and that confuses him a bit.

Currently he sits on Flippa’s old bed, staring at the alchemical divine creature in front of him listing off the rules of the deal.

“The main reason I am here is you said anything, right? You would do anything for this.” The Angel asks.

He takes a deep breath in, “Anything.”

The angel seems about to leave for a second, Charlie sensing the energy of the demon trying to take over, and he calls out, “No need to hide it. I know you are both the same.”

The angel looks over curiously, “Que?”

He sighs, “Let the demon take over, Lil J, I know he needs to be here for now.”

And in a blink of an eye, the demon stands before him, staring curiously, “How did you know?”

“I am more than meets the eye.” Charlie grins.

“Alright then…are you afraid of death?” The demon asks.

Charlie pauses, before letting out a baffled laugh, “Am I afraid of death? Gods no! I am more familiar with it than you would think.” Before pulling up the half lie he has used for centuries, He waves his hand, causing the goop of it to drag behind slightly, “Slime hybrid semi-immortality and all that.”

The demon nods, “Slimes are the favorite of the god of magic after all…” Before pausing, and then snapping his fingers, allowing a contract to manifest, “So..to recap you are asking for the lives of all the dead eggs returned and brought back?…and you are willing to accept any sort of consequences that may befall on you in exchange?”

Charlie nods, “That is the stipulation.”

The demon floats the contract down to Charlie, and Charlie taps it, sealing the soul contract.

The demon grins, “Alright! Everything is set! Do you have any last requests?”

“Can I see my daughter one last time?” Charlie asks.

The Demon seems about to refute, but the Angel forces control, saying “Of course you can.”

The Angel snaps his fingers, and Charlie sees Flippa appear in his arms.

Tearing up, he hugs her close to his chest, letting tears roll down his cheeks. He has his daughter back after all.

“...Are Tilin and Trump…?” Charlie trails off.

“Safe in the egg adoption center asleep…our part is fulfilled.” The angel smiles.

“Good….good” Charlie nods, standing up and gently laying Flippa on her bed.

He glances back to the entity behind him, seeing it swapped back to the demon.

“Meet me at your balcony.” The Demon dismisses, leaving the room leaving him alone with Juanaflippa.

“I….fuck…okay. I should probably leave a note.” Charlie scrambles around the room, looking around to see if he can grab anything sighing when he finds an empty book and quill in one of Flippa’s item chests.

He settles down on the bed next to her again, careful, as he smiles running a comforting hand on her now crackless shell.

Dear whoever finds this,

Most likely i’ll be gone if you find this. I have no idea what's ahead but the demon asked if I was familiar with death so if that's any clue…..anyways I did what I had to do. I promised Flippa I would get Tilin back. I needed to pay for my mistakes. But when I found out about Flippa…well I couldn’t just do a bit of a simple exchange now could I ? This is probably for the best honestly…i’m sorry for all I have done. All the fuck ups I have comitted. All the anxiety I have induced. I’m not the best person, I can admit that. If i’m somehow still alive please don’t come looking for me…and if I’m dead, good riddance. Everyone will be happier i’m gone.

But as my final will,

Can you tell Mariana I love him?

Can you tell Flippa she is the best huevo to ever exist?

And can you tell Tilin…and Quackity too I guess that i’m sorry? 

I’m sorry you had to find out this way, and i’m sorry for dumping Flippa on you, but I needed to do this…and I wasn’t left any other choice. 

Thank you for all; so long Quesadilla island, Slimecicle

Setting down the Book on the beside table, along with his communicator, Charlie steals one last glance at his daughter, sleeping soundly on her bed…he takes her glasses off her in order for her not to break them while sleeping, kneels down, and presses a kiss to the top of her shell, “I love you, Juanaflippa. Hope you can forgive me.” before with quiet tears carefully and quietly sneaking back down the stairs to meet fate that lies ahead.

When he gets down the stairs, Charlie is greeted by the eerie energy of his old blown up house. It seems the demon has fixed it up a bit, a voice calling out from the balcony, “Fixed it up for you since I’m sure you don’t want Juanaflippa to have to see all that. She deserves a nice place to wake up in.”

Charlie looks around at the blue flame lamps, fire bursting from the side licking up the metal of the lights. The floor has been replaced with dark oak, polished and accenting it all. He replaced the bookcase door with one made of a smooth dark stone, placing more books in it than ever.

“Oh shit! Wow All of this?” Charlie runs his hands along the smoothened walls. “Thank you!”

The demon grumbles, “I did this for the egg, not you. I do care about them, believe it or not.”

“This place is more hers than mine so it works.” Charlie shrugs, moving out to stand beside the demon.

The demon looks confused, “You built it for yourself though?”

Charlie laughs bitterly, “Yeah…But I don’t deserve a home after all I have done. Everything that was mine is hers now…Fuck even Eggxile. She can have that too. She can make it pretty…it's a stunning location already.”

The Demon nods, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah…I got all I needed. It’s my turn to finish the deal.” Charlie sighs.

“Get ready for your new life then.” Is what the demon says, it’s the last words he hears before a force hits him like a truck and he falls right off the edge of the balcony, straight to his death.

—————————————————————————————————————————


Everything was pretty…a field of poppies, a friend, a winged man beside her with a kind smile. She remembers these all as if they were a memory. A dream.

But these were all snatched from her in the blink of an eye, and now she floats alone in darkness.

Quiet.

Dark.

Numbing.

But…the numbing only lasts for so long…because the first thing that changes is a warm touch. A warm embrace around her. The feeling of a hug. It is brief, but she isn’t exactly left to the cold, as warmth still embraces her.

Next smell. It’s a familiar smell, the smell of smoke, the smell of a pinch of sulfur, the smell of poppies, a smell that reminds her of her dad. The smell of mildew and saltwater, As if someone spent days in a mossy cave or the beach. She feels a dip next to her and a hand gentle to the touch.

Next is sound, she can hear rustling, she can hear scribbling, she can hear the almost silent sound of crying. She feels bad, she wants to reach out. But after a bit the weight beside her leaves, and she hears the sound of something being placed, a click and a metallic thump. Then quiet footsteps.

Everything is still for a second, before she recognizes a feeling. A kiss. Gentle, placed to her shell.

And a voice, “I love you, Juanaflippa. Hope you can forgive me.” Her father.

Then as quick as it was it is gone, and there is the soft click of a hatch door closing.

Being left with nothing, and not being able to see, she falls asleep.

And then she wakes up.

She sat up in bed, breathily heavily, her body quickly shifting to its humanoid form as she pants, looking around wearily.

Everything is blurry.

Realizing her glasses are off, she reaches around, feeling her glasses in the place she usually puts them, she sets them on her face, her vision clearing as she glances around.

She’s in her room.It’s dustier then she remembers. Her parents have always been clean with her room, allergies and all, that she never really had any dust. Standing up, she covers her nose with her arm to avoid breathing in any dust as she leaves her room, opening the hatch and crawling down the ladder. She gets into the main area and is surprised to seen it been changed.

It doesn’t feel as homely as before.

The warm orange light of torches is replaced with the burning blaze of soul fire. Oak floors turned to a shiny dark oak. It’s pretty empty if she is honest, as if the place hasn’t been lived in for years. She walks forward towards the…essentially a closet…her dad slept in, thinking maybe he is asleep right now. If she can wake him up maybe she can get answers.

But as she opens the dark oak door, she finds an empty room, lit up by blue flame. There isn’t even a bed.

Flippa frowns, shutting the door.

Why is dad not home? She knows she heard him. She runs to the balcony, looking around, glancing around the edge, before running out the front door, looking around.

Still nothing.

She looks around, worried, and eyes landing on the water pouring down from the side of the wall.

Phil’s house.

He can help her.

Juana is quick as she swims up the water, getting to the top.

She is quiet as she looks around.

Phil, Chayanne, and a new egg she doesn’t recognize are out front, chatting and looking through chests.

However, she falters a bit in her confidence in her moment, remembering how the Crow Hybrid tried to kill her once. She kicked his ass, she is proud of that, but it still causes her to second guess as she moves to watch from the plants that make up the wall top.

“Tallulah, do you have everything you need?” Phil asks out loud, glancing over to the new egg, who she now knows as Tallulah.

Tallulah nods, pulling out a couple things from the chest she is digging in.

Flippa watches quietly, but apparently quietly is not enough as she feels a crow land on top of her head, looking down at her curiously, before squawking loudly.

Phil’s head jolts up, pulling out a sword, Chayanne mimicking and shoving Tallulah behind him.

“I won’t hurt you if you reveal yourself” Phil calls out loud. “I am aware you are here though so no use hiding!”

Flippa sighs, standing up holding her hands out in surrender, meeting the eyes of Phil and Chayanne.

Chayanne stills, dropping his sword as he looks at her in surprise.

Phil looks confused though, “Juanaflippa? How?”

Flippa shakes her head, walking forward, and signing ‘Hi Tio Phil do you know where my dad is?’

Phil looks confused, concerned even as he speaks again, “I…I don’t believe I know…he’s been missing…since…tilin’s death if I recall..”

Flippa frowns, continuing, ‘How about papa Mariana? I know dad is back…I felt his presence when I was half asleep. I heard him.’’

Phil sighs, “Well if Charlie is back, I can help find him, but we can message both of your parents in the meantime.”

Ph1lza whispers to Slimecicle > did you seriously leave your kid alone after getting her back????

Message not sent: User “Slimecicle” unable to be found

Phil frowns at that, deciding to message Mariana.

Ph1lza whispers to ElMariana > have you seen Slimecicle?

ElMariana whispers to Ph1lza > no??? Not since he went missing again

Ph1lza whispers to ElMariana > shit….

“Juanaflippa, where was it you woke up?” Phil asks urgently.

‘My room?’

Phil nods, turning to face Chayanne, says, “Chayanne, can you watch over Juanaflippa while i’m gone? Maybe introduce her and Tallulah to each other. I’ll be back soon.

And Flippa watches as Phil whistles to his crows as he dives off the edge, a couple crows following.

Chayanne looks to his sister, immediately pulling her into a tight hug, Flippa hugging back confused on why he is so emotional.

‘I thought you died’ Chayanne signs to her.

Flippa however looks confused, ‘I don’t think I have died again??’

Chayanne shakes his head, ‘Not that it matters now though. This is Tallulah by the way. Tallulah, this is Juanaflippa.’

Tallulah waves, before signing, ‘nice to meet you!’

Flippa smiles, ‘likewise’

They all sit outside, waiting for Phil to return, Chayanne informing Flippa of stuff she may have missed, when Phil climbs up to the wall again, clutching some items to his chest with a grave look on his face.

When his eyes land on Flippa, his wings droop a little, as he approaches, glasses clutched in his hand, as he kneels down to meet Flippa at eye level. “You’re going to be staying with us for the night.”

‘Did you find dad?’ Flippa signs.

Phil’s frown deepens though, as he pulls the egg into a hug, “no…but it’s getting late and I don’t want you sleeping alone in that house. I have your bed so you don’t need to worry about no bed.”

Flippa frowns, but nods as she lets Phil hold her hand and lead her into his house, glancing behind her as she is led inside.

—————————————————————————————————————————

It was quick. He is familiar with fall damage deaths, actually he prefers them since they are so quick.

He splatters, a typical trait with slime hybrids. If they don’t bounce, they splatter.

But instead of the welcoming numbness of death, he feels different after. He doesn’t feel like he is floating in an endless abyss. He is still aware of the world around him. How the dirt shifts under his slime, how his glasses cracked against the dirt, how he felt pain for a split second, before it all collapsed into a warm static fills his limbs.

Static?

And then everything becomes too much at once. He feels everything like a hot needle, digging into his skin, but can’t breath as he has no body. He wants to scream, but no mouth for the sound to escape to.

He feels his slime bubble, and pulse with electricity as he just waits for it all to end. Hoping for the sweet release of death allowing him to leave his mortal body behind and get back to Molympus.

But it doesn’t, and he feels as his limbs start to reform, slowly, painfully.

And when it all ends, he opens his eyes.

He sees dirt.

Honestly, what was he expecting?

He groans, surprised a sound even comes out.

But it isn’t a normal sound, it sounds crunched. And sort of like a staticy growl.

He is quick to push himself up, finding he can see.

But as he looks at his arms pushing him up, he feels his stomach drop as he sees unstable glitchy and…still goopy? Looking clawed masses of black with flickering numbers. He yelps, falling back, watching as the black and green masses follow, unlodging from the dirt as he falls back. He winced as he felt he fell back on…Honestly no idea. He looks back, to see a tail made of the same goopy mass, but with a green flame flickering at the tip.

He is well aware now at this point what he is now.

There's no really denying it.

They turned him into a code.

Well, hey, at least he isn’t dead.

And with that he runs off into the woods before he can be spotted and killed by any passing islander. 

Chapter Text

Juanaflippa doesn’t remember falling asleep. The night after Phil ushered her into his house was quick. Phil tried to get her to go to bed, but she just woke up and wasn’t too tired yet.

So Phil let her stay up with him. He gave her a tea to sip as they sat there, Phil at his table, she can see how tense he is from a mile away at this point, looking ready to pull feathers or hair out. Flippa didn’t like that, she wanted to see her tio Phil okay, but whenever she asked he would put on a weak smile, ruffle her hair lightly, and tell her he’s fine and to continue drinking her tea. To which she begrudgingly did. The tea was nice. It was cooled to the perfect temp, smelled and tasted great, and made her eyes droop a little from the calming effects of the tea.

She doesn’t exactly remember when she fell asleep, but she remembers feeling Phil pick her up gently, and say, “I’ll explain everything in the morning. For now get your sleep, Juanaflippa, you’ll need it for this.”

She wakes up again, cozy in her bed, but she feels a presence next to her. Arms wrapped around her protectively, as if clinging to her for dear life. She struggled a bit to grab her glasses off wherever they were placed, but when she can see again, her surroundings snap into focus again, and she is reminded she had to stay the night at Tio Phil’s.

But who is hugging her? Flippa tries her best to look over and see who it is, and when she can squirm enough, her eyes widen when she finally sees her Papa Mariana sleeping beside her with what looks like tear streaks having rolled down his face having dried.

Seeming to feel Flippa moving in her arms, Mariana opens an eye. It seems he fell asleep with glasses on, so Papa yawns, adjusting her glasses, before looking at Flippa, before very obviously starting to cry again. Pulling Juanaflippa tight to his chest, “Juana….has vuelto…” (Juana…you’re back…) Mariana sobs, clinging to her.

Flippa smiles, signing, ‘I don’t remember much…but assuming how everyone is reacting to me I died again I assume..?’

Mariana watches, before her eyes lower, hands around Flippa starting to shake slightly, “Yo... accidentalmente te maté de nuevo... estábamos luchando contra algunos monstruos en esa mazmorra y... Juana lo siento mucho nunca quise hacerte daño, todo el mundo estaba en el lugar equivocado en el momento equivocado y-” (I...accidentally killed you again...we were fighting some monsters in that dungeon and.. Juana i'm so sorry I never meant to harm you, Everyone was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and-)

Flippa immediately stops Mariana’s spiral as she hugs her parent tight, staying there a while, before signing, ‘I forgive you. Everyone makes mistakes…and I’m back, am I not?’

Mariana sighs, “Sí, pero... cómo?” (yes, but…how?)

Before Flippa answers though, there is a knock at the door, before Phil comes in.

“Morning.” The Crow greets, as he comes into the room.

“Ah! Phil!’” Mariana greets back, waving.

“How did you two sleep? I can understand these sudden accommodations might not be the most comfortable..but at least it’s something.” Phil asks.

“Fine…I..at Slime’s i’ve slept in worse. He does not know how to take care of himself I swear.” Mariana huffs.

Phil laughs, “I Believe it. He went to me asking how to customize beds saying he wanted to do something special…saying that was his first bed ever but he wants it to be Flippa’s and saying how he preferred the ground anyways…which is concerning…but when I offered to make him a better one he insisted on only one for Flippa and he would toss out that old raggedy one he made first day on the island. I tried to convince him to have one himself but he was very insistent so didn’t want to aggravate him. “

Mariana groans, “So I could have slept in something better when at his place? When I see him next I swear-”

Phil cringes at that though, before asking, “Mariana can I speak with you in private for a moment please?”

Mariana looks confused, “Oh…Sí,. Sure”

Phil walks over, and kneels next to her, “It won’t be long and after we can all have something to eat. I Just need to have a private adult conversation with your father for a second.”

Flippa just nods, watching as Phil places a hand on Mariana’s back as he leads her Papa out once again.

And once again she is alone. In a dark room.

Flippa sighs.

She doesn’t like the darkness. Reminders her of that terrible feeling.

Maybe some light and fresh air can help?

Flippa stands, walking over to the window, opening a shade and unlatching the window, staring out at the fresh morning air, watching the crops sway with the wind.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It was Mariana who snapped Charlie out of his miserable rut after everything that happened. Well not exactly purposefully, but what else would snap him out from leaning against a tree, picking at his claws and watching his tail slowly sway?

Mariana was cursing under her breath, and didn’t notice the code as she ran past him, seeming to try and make herself look less like a mess then she did as she sprinted in a direction.

“Wh@t 15 h3 d01ng?” Charlie murmurs under his breath as he watches the human in a desperate ploy to get somewhere as fast as he could while very obviously still trying to even be able to walk normally.

Honestly, it’s kind of amusing. Charlie can’t help but wonder if Mariana was ever like this whenever they had to meet up for dates or such.

But his curiosity got the best of him, and even with how his whole body still aches from the transformation, he started to follow Mariana from a distance to see what his bitch wife was up to.

As he follows, Charlie finds it easier to run on all fours rather than two like this, seeing the body seems more built for a quadrupedal type of movement even though he could easily walk bipedally. But he follows, sticking to the shadows, hoping not to get caught and killed on his first day of being a code.

That would really suck.

It’s when he notices Mariana is heading towards the wall does Charlie realize the eggs have been found, or at least Flippa.

However before he could follow Mariana any longer, Charlie panics, hiding in a bush as he hears voices closer to him than Mariana ever was.

“Phil dijo en el centro de adopción de huevos, verdad?” (Phil said to check the egg adoption center, right?) It was Quackity speaking, seeming tired and annoyed to have to be doing something at this hour.

“Sí! Mencionó que ambos deberíamos ir a comprobarlo. No sé exactamente por qué... pero podría ser.” (yeah! He mentioned that we should both go check it out. Not exactly sure why...but might as well.) Maximus as well.

Thinking this could be a good opportunity to see if they really followed through, Charlie follows Quackity and Maximus now.

He watches as the Mexican and Spaniard chat, not fully paying attention, mainly focusing on blending into the shadows as he trails the human and the duck hybrid.

It’s when they are near the egg adoption center, and Charlie can see two eggs staring out from the entrance, Charlie sighs in relief. Everything is well again.

And it seems the two he was following noticed too, both pausing in shock, before sprinting, yelling out the names of their respective eggs as they rush to the center, and tightly embrace the eggs they once lost.

Charlie can only imagine that's exactly what Mariana is currently doing with Flippa, wherever she is.

Tiredness set into him as he leaned against a tree, having pushed himself quite a bit today.

He deserves a nap in his personal opinion.

He lays down, curling into the shadows of the tree near the base, and lets his eyes drop, and himself lulls off into sleep. 

His sleep was refreshing but dreamless he finds, but that’s fine. He never had much other than nightmares anyways so it is a dream come true for him.

Charlie yawns, stretching, and looks around.

The air is misty, and he can see the sun rising from the east.

Maybe he can figure out where Flippa is today. So he can protect her the best he can in this new body.

And his first stop? Well Phil’s is probably the closest so maybe she’s there? She won’t be at his house, why would anyone want to check up on him?

Flippa is resourceful, she probably found her way somewhere safe and whoever found her called Mariana.

And with that he starts his climb.

He finds it surprisingly easy to climb actually, his claws sink well into the cracks of the stone, and it weirdly feels natural, like codes are supposed to climb.

Either way he climbs.

Up

Up

Until he reaches the top.

Until he looks in the open window.

To see Flippa staring at him, wide eyed, scared.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Flippa watches as first a clawed hand made of pure black ooze proceeds to pull itself on top of the wall, before another, and then with one heave a creature pulls itself completely on top of the wall, It stands up, swaying a little bit, before it stabilizes, and it opens its ‘eyes’ and she can finally see what it is standing near the window, and feels her heart sink.

There stands a code, goopy, with two long horns that sprout and curl back slightly from something that resembles messy hair with long pointed ears that seem to be able to move like a wolf’s or cat’s, green two and a half hearts on it’s chest like markings,  with clawed hands and a spade tail with a green flame tip, as it flicks back and forth, it’s eyes like zeros as it looks around the top.

Before its eyes meet with hers.

The eyes widen a little, before flickering to ones as it suddenly starts walking over, tail wagging.

Flippa stumbles back, growling at the creature, unsheathing her claws, flaring her wings out, and snarling in fear as she tries to move away from the code approaching.

The code stops at that however, looking confused. It tilts it’s head like a confused dog, speaking in a scratchy and distorted voice. “Fl1pp@?”

It sounds hurt by her reaction. But what throws her off more is it knows her name.

Flippa growls louder, aggressively signing, ‘Go away! How do you know my name?!’

The code watches, and she sees as it deflates a little at her signs. She can see it start to melt slightly.

Why does it seem disappointed? Flippa thinks, doesn’t it want to eat her?

But this whole situation suddenly comes to a close, as she watches as it stares at her sadly, before flinching, letting out a low growl, before with ears down and tail between legs it sprints off the wall, jumping off before she can even react.

And with that Suddenly there is a light knock, and the two adults walk back in.

Mariana quiet, as he clutches a book and…what looks like a pair of glasses and a communicator to her chest.

She stares at the glasses. Those were the same ones Phil were holding…and from what she can see they look like dad’s.

“Juana? Qué ha pasado? Pareces asustada.” (Juana? What happened? you look scared) Mariana frowns.

‘Saw a code’ Flippa signs.

“What?!” Phil exclaims, as he looks around, before rushing to the window and shutting it and running out of the room as well.

“Mierda... qué aspecto tenía?” (shit...what did it look like?) Mariana curses, looking around.

‘It ran when it heard you two coming…it was really weird though…weirdly goopy’ Flippa signs, ‘by the way why do you have dad’s glasses?’

Mariana hums, “extrañamente viscoso... huh. Oh, las gafas?... Bueno... hay algo que tenemos que decirte.” (weirdly slimy...huh. Oh the glasses?...Well...there's something we need to tell you.)

Phil comes back in, pushing Chayanne and Tallulah into the room as well, before sighing, “No sign of the code out there right now…but if it was stalking the eggs it's most likely not gone yet. We’re safe here for now until it gives up and leaves”

“Gracias, Phil” Mariana thanks the Crow.

“Oh! No problem we gotta all protect the eggs the best we can when there's so much danger out there.” Phil assures.

Mariana smiles to Phil, before giving Charlie’s old broken glasses to Juanaflippa to look over.

Phil frowns lightly, before looking to Mariana, “She saw them I assume? If you can’t, I can explain.” Phil offers.

Mariana shakes his head though, “no. Puedo hacerlo. Pero gracias.” (no. I can do it. thank you though.)

Phil nods, giving Mariana a reassuring pat on the back, before moving aside. Motioning for the two other eggs to do the same.

Mariana takes a deep breath in, “Tu padre ha desaparecido. Hizo un trato con gente mala para que tú, Tilin y Trump volvierais de la muerte…” (Your father is missing. He made a deal with some bad people in order to get you, Tilin, and Trump back from the dead…) 

Juana’s eyes widen at this.

“No creemos que esté muerto. Hemos estado buscando y no hemos encontrado ningún cuerpo, pero... esperamos lo mejor.” (We don't think he's dead. We've been searching and never found a body, but...we're hoping for the best.) Mariana adds on.

Juana ignores the hissed breath in Phil takes at that, and instead immediately hugs her papa, ‘we’ll get dad back’ she signs. 

“lo haremos. Lo arrastraré desde las puertas del infierno aunque sea necesario.” (we will. I'll drag him back from the gates of hell even if i need to.)

Flippa chirps in agreement, hugging her papa tighter. ‘Can we go home now?’

Mariana looks to Phil, who sighs, “i’m not stopping you. I’m sure the code is long gone by now too. But I do think we need to meet for funeral plans for Charlie.”

“We can be back tomorrow. I just think she wants to go home now.” Mariana assures.

Phil nods, “Understood. Well, see you tomorrow, Mariana.” Phil opens the doors so they all can leave.

“Adiós!” Mariana calls.

‘Bye Tio Phil! Thank you!’ Flippa signs.

Phil, standing at the doorway smiles at them, “be safe out there you two, who knows what's lurking.”

They start to walk away, and hear the shutting of the door behind them.

“Ominoso. Me recuerda a cómo puede ser Slime a veces.” (Ominous. reminds me of how Slime can be at times.) Mariana laughs, however it fades into a sad chuckle.

Flippa squeezes Mariana’s arm assuringly.

She is sure of it. They will be a family again. She will make sure of it.  

Chapter Text

Today is Juanaflippa’s birthday. Hers and the rest of her siblings. Well, except for Richarlyson and Tallulah. But they are all planning on doing a bigger party like they are doing for their birthdays today but for the other eggs birthdays when they come up.

She doesn’t remember much from the day that cargo ship crashed onto the island bringing the Brazilians and Richarlyson appearing, but she does remember waking up again in the egg center terrified and feeling weak.

She remembers all the parents running in. How Mariana ran to her instantly pulling her into a tight hug, sobbing so loudly, saying he’s glad he didn’t lose her again.

But that is in the past, and well…today is her birthday.

And her dad isn’t here to celebrate with her.

She can tell Papa is acting a bit different today too. More quiet. More skittish. They have not seen that code in a while.

Ever since that morning they have seen that code around more often. Distantly watching. She watched it growl at a zombie walking in the area towards her at one point. That seemed to scare the zombie so it stumbled away as fast as it could, and she could barely see the reaction of the code after, since papa noticed it and ran after it with her axe yelling at it. She can remember how fast that thing runs away every time it’s noticed. She would probably feel bad if she didn’t know that the codes were dangerous.

“tal vez esté muerto?” (Maybe it’s dead?) Mariana suggests in reasoning.

Which, honestly? That reasoning makes her a little bit upset. Sure, it’s a creature known to try and kill her and her siblings. But something in the back of her mind makes her want to defend it. Juanaflippa tries to shake that feeling out of her head, turning her attention to her Papa, who is carrying a bag that looks to have supplies to help set up for the party.

“Are you ready, Juana?” Mariana asks, giving her a smile.

Juana tries to smile back, before looking down at her hands, her smile slipping into a frown. She wants to sign something, but she can’t figure out how to express her feelings right now.

It’s quiet, but she hears a soft sigh, before the sound of a bag gently hitting the floor, and next thing she knows she feels the warm arms of her Papa around her, humming a little bit and rubbing her back comfortingly.

“Pensando en Slime, no?” (Thinking about Slime, aren't you?) Mariana asks, voice soft, the warm grasp of understanding. 

Flippa nods, tears starting to drip down her face. Mariana holds her tight, and when she moves to pull away, she allows, staying kneeling and giving a reassuring smile.

‘Just..’ Flippa hesitates, holding her hands in that sign, before continuing, ‘I wish dad was here with us. Last time I saw him I said I hated him. And he in return ran away to fix things…and he did. At the exchange of his life. And now he can’t see how far I have come since then. How far all of us eggs who he gave up everything for have come. I miss him. I want to see him again.’

Mariana sighs, giving an understanding nod. “Puede parecer difícil, pero recuerda que no está muerto. Aún no hemos encontrado el cuerpo. Estoy seguro de que podemos encontrarlo y darle una severa charla.” (It may seem difficult, but remember that he is not dead. We haven't found a body yet. I'm sure we can find him and give him a stern talking to.)

Flippa nods, but hesitates, signing, ‘Sure…but it’s been months with no sign of him. Dad has never been the best at taking care of himself, and they have had to do something to him in order to get us back…and he doesn’t have his glasses.’ she points out.

Mariana frowns, but laughs a little with a nod, “Eso es verdad. Pero es testarudo, como tú. Lo heredaste de él.” (That's true. But he's stubborn, like you. You got that from him.)

Juana sighs, but nods.

Mariana squeezes her into another quick hug, “No pierdas la esperanza en ese pendejo todavía. Y que me parta un rayo si se dio por vencido con nuestra familia tan rápido. (Don't give up hope on that dumbass yet. And i'll be damned if he gave up on our family that quickly.)

Flippa nods, before signing, ‘Thanks papa’

Mariana smiles, standing up, “ahora tengo que dejarte en casa del tío Roier mientras nos preparamos” (now I need to drop you off at uncle Roier's place while we set up.) 

Flippa nods, and they head out.

When they get to Roier’s house, Flippa is quickly bombarded as Bobby and Tilin both run out the door and crash into her, sending all three dragon eggs into a fit of giggles.

“No lo verán?” (they won’t see?) Mariana asks as she watches the eggs tumble around play fighting.

Roier sighs, “Dije que iba a ayudarte! Jaiden dijo que estaba bien vigilándolos a los tres. Ella estará atenta y los traerá cuando todo esté listo. No se preocupen.” (I said I was going to help you! Jaiden said she was fine keeping an eye on the three of them. She'll keep an eye out and bring them in when everything is ready. Don't worry.)

Mariana nods, before turning to the wrestling dragons, “ey!” he calls out, catching their attention as they separate and look at her.

“la tía Jaiden te vigilará hasta que sea la hora. No te metas en líos. Estoy un poco preocupada por el código todavía así que si lo ves por favor díselo a un adulto, hija.” (aunt Jaiden will watch you until it's time. Stay out of trouble. I'm kinda worried about the code still so if you spot it please tell an adlt, daughter.)

Juana nods.

“Bobby, Tilin, vosotros también.” (Bobby, Tilin, you too) Mariana adds sternly.

Tilin nods, and Bobby just punches her, which he is taking as a yes.

Juana watches as Roier steps from door out to meet up with Mariana, and Juana can see Jaiden who was standing in the doorway watching this.

Mariana looks up to see Jaiden, and gives a thankful smile, “Gracias, Jaiden.” (Thank you, Jaiden).

“No problem,” Jaiden smiles back at Mariana, before turning to look at the three eggs, “Alright, Bobby, Tilin, Flippa, you three should probably head inside now.” She holds the door open and the three eggs enter.

Flippa glances behind, looking at her Papa, before entering the house, ready to play.

Flippa likes tía Jaiden a lot. She would often encourage their antics as long as it wasn’t dangerous, and she is one of the few who always treated her dad as a friend.

Jaiden would always tell her stories of the kinds of dumb stuff she would do with Dad back when they got to the island. Since they did build their houses together in the wall after all.

A lot of the island just seemed quiet, coming to her dad’s funeral as an obligation, but tía Jaiden was one of the few to share a sentiment. Papa, tía Jaiden, tío Phil, and tío Quackity. The four who actually cared to say something at Dad’s bodiless casket, only his glasses, communicator, and a single old shirt of his laid neatly inside.

Flippa swore she heard tío Foolish laughing at some point during the funeral. She would have killed him if it wasn’t for Papa holding onto her, her presence grounding him the whole funeral.

But time went quickly, a lot of playing, Bobby convinced the group of them to paint with him at one point.

“Okay I just got the message. We’re heading to Flippa and Mariana’s place now.” Jaiden informs. 

‘Wait the party is at my house?’ Flippa signs, confused.

Jaiden laughs, “Well why else would you have been brought here? Your papa has a big surprise for you there so he couldn’t just let you watch her put it up.”

Juana just nods.

“Well let's get going, shall we?” Jaiden then starts to lead the way back.

It doesn’t take long until she notices the familiar shape of her home.

But she notices something different. A type of dome that has been constructed from the back of the house, connected by the back wall.

“Well…here we are.” Jaiden nods, “Flippa, Mariana said you should have access to enter. It's the same system as the rest of the house.” and she points towards an outdoor entrance.

Flippa nods, walking up to the outside of the dome, touching the barrier, feeling the thing be made of a thick layer of glass that she is sure could even stop an explosion or a bullet. Flippa glances over to the door, and a semi-obscured keypad sits next to the door. She walks up, opening the hatch on it, and tapping in the familiar code. And she hears the soft buzz and a click as the door unlocks, and Flippa pulls it open. She glances over to the three watching.

“Nice.” Jaiden grins, and moves to enter, Bobby trailing behind her, and Tilin walks over, and stops to wait for Flippa. Flippa grins to her best friend, before entering with Tilin, ready for the birthday party to start.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Charlie is well aware of what day it is.

How could he not? He really does wish he could be there. But how exactly can he do that when they think he’s dead and is in fact a code now?

Yeah, that's the issue here. And it’s not exactly one he can get past unscathed.

He’s been watching her for months now, keeping an eye on his daughter.

And with this time he’s learned a lot more about his new situation. First off, not all codes are the yolk thirsty killers he used to think they were along with the rest of the island. Most in fact are in similar situations to him. Mortal creatures that through some freak series of events got turned into codes and just trying to survive. However from what he is aware of he’s the only humanoid to have ever got transformed, and most the rest are animals or for some, to Charlie’s horror, experiments done by the Federation. It’s just the few who get territorial or are just aggressive in general that give them the bad reputation they have.

And second off, his body acts the same as his slime, which means he doesn’t really have to worry as much about learning new abilities past the fact that he’s pretty sure he will sometimes probably accidentally electrocute something if he comes in contact with it since he is literally made of code. Other then that he still has to grow used to the fact he has claws now and apparently codes have teeth like sharks too, which is frankly terrifying, and now he’s glad he has never had the meet the fate of becoming a target of a code and seeing many rows of sharp teeth ready to chomp on his arm, leg, or even head.

But the body horror of new traits from this whole situation is not important right now. What is, is the fact that the eggs birthdays are today. And he has a plan for later in order to give Flippa the birthday present she deserves.

But for now he is content, watching from the woods on the other side of the glass dome, which is built to keep exactly what he is out. Which he is honestly glad Mariana took the effort to do. Means she is taking effort to protect Flippa even better after everything.

But it is still kind of annoying. He has to work harder to protect Flippa himself now.

Charlie doesn’t realize what he is doing until too late. It was just a simple touch of the glass, a longing touch. But an unintentional clawing at the material is enough it seems to set off the alarm built into the dome.

He hisses, moving back as a shrill tone starts to emit from the dome. He just wants to hide and escape the noise, but his eyes land on Flippa, and the rest of the eggs as the adults in a panic gather all the eggs, a couple staying back, weapons drawn, as the rest run out from the dome, ready to attack.

It is Phil who sees him, and points, gathering the attention of everyone.

Well. That’s not good.

And he runs, trying to find a secure place to hide under ground while an angry mob of parents look around for the code stalking their children. 

—————————————————————————————————————————

It felt like it was all in an instant, as suddenly alarms went off, blaring, and next thing she knew her and all her siblings were gathered in a corner, guarded by BadBoyHalo and two of the Brazilian parents. Pac and Mike she thinks she recalls the names of.

Mike throws her off a bit, the Brazilian reminds her a lot of Dad, and she is well aware of the look of sadness Papa gets whenever she sees him. Mike however sympathizes, and often says he wishes he came here earlier because he would have loved to meet his supposed mysterious brother. And he weirdly has a similar energy to what Dad gave off. But Dad always told her not to mention the energy, and seemed worried and a bit stressed when she mentioned she can sense it. So she never told him.

When the others came back is when they were let free from their protection.

Mariana rushes to her, and picks her up, saying “Se acabó la fiesta. Los códigos se han dado cuenta y la fiesta probablemente atraería a más. Lo siento.” (Party is over now. The codes have noticed and the party would probably attract more. Sorry.)

‘I understand’ Flippa signs, but can’t help the disappointment that washes over her. 

“esto no significa que tu cumpleaños haya terminado aún, jovencita, todavía tengo más cosas para que hagas o abras.” (this doesn't mean your birthday is over yet, young lady, I still have more things for you to do or open.) Mariana claims though. “entra ahora, yo también entraré pronto” (go inside now, i'll be in soon too) 

Juana nods, going inside, to the surprise of Bobby, Tilin, Chayanne, and Tallulah inside too.

Chayanne seems to notice her confusion, before signing, ‘our parents are helping take down the party supplies’

Tallulah is looking around curiously, before turning to Flippa and signing ‘I’ve never been in your house before..’

Juana smiles, ‘want a tour?’ she asks.

And with that, it doesn’t take long for everyone to get everything cleaned up, and while all the eggs played in the house, the parents fixed everything up, and Bad who stopped by one final time, planted a tree in the backyard to fix how empty it looked after all the party supplies were gone.

When everyone left, it was just Juanaflippa and Mariana alone once again, soaking up the calm.

It was Mariana to speak first, “Fue divertida la fiesta?” (Was the party fun?)

Juana nods quickly, signing, ‘I loved it. Thank you.’

Mariana smiles. “muy bien. Hay una actividad más que había planeado luego su regalo final antes de acostarse.” (very good. There is one more activity I had planned then your final gift before bed.)

Flippa tilts her head, confused on what Mariana is talking about, and is surprised to see Mariana pull out a box of many colored grasses and small flowers.

“Sé que te encantaba hacer pulseras de hierba con Slime después de que te lo enseñara un día. Esperaba que pudiéramos hacernos una mutuamente... y luego hacerle una a Slime. Podemos dejarlo en su tumba. Así podrá encontrarla.” (I know how you loved to make Grass bracelets with Slime after he showed you that one day. I was hoping we could make each other one...and then make one for Slime. We can leave it at his grave. That way he can find it.)

Flippa nods, hugging her Papa.

And then get to work. Slowly and meticulously weaving pieces of colorful grasses and tiny flowers into a bracelet.

Papa chatting as they do so.

“Sabes, siempre me he preguntado cómo Slime sabía hacer esto. No es algo común que la gente sepa hacer. He investigado un poco. Dice que era una práctica común entre los adoradores de los dioses de la naturaleza. Pero nunca pensé en Slime como un adorador de la Naturaleza. Tiene un poco de magia, no? Supuse que estaba asociado con la Iglesia de la Magia y sólo lo ocultaba.”

(You know, I've always wondered how Slime knew how to do this. It's not a common thing for people to know how to do. I did some research. It says it was a common practice among worshippers of the god of Nature. But I never thought of Slime as a worshipper of the god of Nature. He has a bit of magic to him, doesn't he? I assumed he was associated with the Church of Magic and was just hiding it.)

Flippa nods, setting her bracelet down, signing, ‘dad always was an enigma like that’

“puedes repetirlo” (You can say that again) Mariana laughs.

Flippa works diligently on her bracelet, grinning when she thought she was done.

‘Hold out your wrist’ Flippa signs.

Mariana does so, and Flippa ties the grass bracelet around Mariana’s wrist, giving a tug to see the bracelet is snug, before moving back, and starting on the one for Dad, picking up the grass and Flowers they specifically set aside for his.

“Es precioso, Juana!” (It’s beautiful, Juana!) Mariana smiles, admiring the bracelet.

Juana smiles, as she works, glad her papa loves it.

It doesn’t take long until Mariana looks done with hers, but not wanting to distract her just immediately goes to helping hand strands of grass or flowers as she weaves them in.

When it’s done, they tie it carefully, before Mariana takes it, looks it over, before nodding in approval setting it aside, “podemos llevarlo allí mañana” (We can take it there tomorrow)

Flippa nods.

Mariana then picks up the bracelet she made from beside her, “su muñeca por favor?” (Your wrist please?)

Flippa offers, and Mariana carefully ties it,

Flippa happily looks at the grass bracelet, chirping happily, hoping to show it off sometime soon.

“Olvidé lo que se supone que debemos hacer con ellos después…”(I forgot what we are supposed to do with them after…) Mariana sighs.

‘Dad always said to wear it until it fully dried. And then you can take it off when needed.’ Flippa answers.

“lo haremos entonces” (We’ll do that then) Mariana hums.

The sky out the window has darkened, and Flippa can hear the sound of monsters moving around outside. She yawns, eyes drooping a little.

“pronto podrás dormir, Juana. Sólo un regalo más.” (you will be able to sleep soon, Juana. Just one more gift.) Mariana assures, before standing up.

Flippa waits, struggling to keep her eyes open.

And Mariana comes back with a flat looking box. She sets it down next to her, and sits down too, “adelante” Mariana encourages.

Flippa nods, picking up the box and slowly taking the lid off.

And what is inside makes her eyes water.

It is a cape. One similar to the one her papa always wears, but tailored to her.

It is the colors of the trans pride flag, but it’s what's sewed on top that makes her want to cry.

Two and a half hearts. Sewed on with precision. A memorial for her dad.

“Originalmente solo iba a ser la bandera trans...estaba trabajando en esto antes de que murieras...pero volviste.... y Slime desapareció...sentí que debía terminarlo y bueno...los corazones como símbolo para él. Usé una de sus viejas camisas para los corazones…”

(It was originally just meant to be the trans flag...I was working on this before you died...but you came back....and Slime went missing...felt I should finish it and well..the hearts as a symbol for him. I used one of his old shirts for the hearts.)

Mariana rambles on, before trailing off, and finishing with a “espero que te guste” (I hope you like it)

Flippa instantly moves over, hugging Mariana tightly.

‘I love it. Thank you’

Mariana sighs in relief. “Bien. Estaba preocupado.” (good. I was worried)

Flippa continues to hug, but a yawn comes out.

“deberías dormir” (You should sleep) Mariana chuckles, setting her down from on him. “Yo también lo necesito.” (I need to too)

Flippa nods, signing ‘Good night.’

“dormir bien” (sleep well) Mariana responds, seemingly fighting back a yawn.

And with that, Flippa goes upstairs to her room, clutching her present close to her chest.

She opens her bedroom door, flickering the light on.

And to her surprise, there is a present laid on her bed. It looks a bit roughed up, like dug out from some garbage or something, but a present.

Fl1pp@ written on the side with a shaky scrawl of handwriting.

Looking around, Flippa sees her door is open, and quickly shuts it, before looking once again at the mysterious present before opening.

Inside lays a piece of steak, Flippa grimaces at that. She’s vegan after all. Clearly whoever gave this to her forgot.

And a book.

Carefully she picks up the book, looking over it, before opening.

“H4ppy b1rthd@y Fl1pp@!! f0ll0w th3 l1ght f0r y0ur pr353nt”

And suddenly the light in her room flickers out.

All except for a green light in her doorway outside her room.

Flippa hesitates.

This seems suspicious.

But it is a present is it not? And it seems to be put together with some meaning.

So she pulls out her gun, glancing around her room one final time, before carefully sneaking out, shutting her door as quietly as she can.

The light seems to move on it’s own, as it spirals around her once before moving forward leading her down the stairs.

She follows, hesitating, but as she creeps down the stairs she notices Papa has left for bed so she is in the clear, releasing any tension in her body as she continues, taking more effort in no noise rather than staying hidden now.

When she gets out the door safely, another green light similarly joins, swirling around her once before starting to lead into the woods.

Flippa frowns. The woods are dangerous at night. Codes and monsters could attack.

But with a bit of courage and the lights waiting, she continues on.

As it turns out she is safe. The lights will chase away any monster with any idea of looking at her and it seems that there are no codes in the woods currently.

It’s a long walk, one that tires her out a lot more. But it’s when she sees a certain wall she feels a bit of excitement. She runs forward past the lights, watching as the lights panic and move quickly to catch up with her.

When she gets to her Dad’s old house, she pauses, turning around to look at the lights, ‘is this where you wanted me to go?’ she signs.

The lights swirl around each other, before combining into one larger green light that proceeds to move forward, embedding themselves into the door that hides her way into her room. Making it swing open with a burst of energy.

Flippa takes it as a yes, moving forward cautiously. She walks past the door, and the door lightly closes behind her.

She jumps at the sudden movement.

This is a lot. Can she trust this?

The lights protected her this far, but they seem to be gone now, and anything can be up there.

Flippa hesitates, looking at the book one final time.

Well, it’s now or never.

And she crawls up the ladder.

When she gets up the ladder, what she sees causes her to get excited, and crawl up completely.

There, sitting on the bed, is her Dad.

“H3y Fl1pp@. H4ppy b1rthd@y!” He speaks with a glitchy voice.

And she runs at him, collapsing into his arms.

She ignores the feeling of static wherever she touches, and ignores how…unnatural he sounds.

‘Dad!’ She signs ‘why did you leave me that one night?’

Charlie chuckles lightly, “50rry @b0ut th4t. 1 h@d t0. But 1’m b4ck n0w.”

Flippa grins, tail wagging, ‘I should tell papa!’

However the panic that takes to her dad’s face causes her to hesitate.

“N0!” He yells. He looks scared at that. “Ju5t…k33p m3 53cr3t 0k@y? 1’m 4lr34dy br3@k1ng rul35 v151t1ng y0u.”

Flippa visibly looks sad at that. Her shoulders slump.

And Charlie looks pained at how sad she looks. “50rry. ju5t…m@r14n@ c4nn0t kn0w. H0w3v3r 1 w1ll b3 v15it1ng m0r3. 1 pr0m153.”

‘Promise?’ Flippa repeats.

“Pr0m153.” Charlie confirms.

“Y0u 5h0uld pr0b4bly l3@v3 n0w.” Charlie sighs.

‘..can i stay any longer’ Flippa signs hopefully.

Charlie looks nervous, but nods, “5ur3.”

Flippa just sits there with her dad. Just happy to have him back.

However from the buddy day, tiredness sets in quickly, and it doesn’t take long for Juanaflippa to fall asleep to Charlie’s dismay.

He groans.

Well shit. Now he has to get her back in her room without being noticed as a code carrying around a sleeping egg.

That’ll be fun. 

Chapter Text

It’s become a routine after her birthday.

Leave at night, sometimes go to the old house, sometimes her dad will meet her near papa’s. But he will do tasks with her, and just spend time together. It’s nice to have dad back. She missed him after all.

But she can’t ignore how strange he acts at times.

Dad’s way more paranoid, often looking around, or sometimes straight up disappearing in a blink of an eye with a weird static feeling in the air.

Or the fact that sometimes his body just….looks weird. At one point he’ll look fine, but he’ll be staring at something and suddenly his arms are glitched and looking like they are at unnatural angles before going back to normal.

Flippa asked him about it once. But he pushed her questions aside and said “0h 1’t5 ju5t 5l1m3 th1ng5 Fl1pp@, n0th1ng t0 w0rry 4b0ut.”

Flippa is smart, she knows she would have seen something like that with him previously if it was just ‘slime things’ as he claims, but she doesn’t want to upset her dad so she just huffs, nods, and continues on.

But she knows that is her dad. It’s in his soft gaze on her, the protective stance he takes when anything makes a noise. When she asks, and even with how nervous he looks, he still agrees to go back inside with her and tuck her in to sleep. He gives her a soft kiss on the forehead leaving a weird buzzing feeling on her scales before pulling away, whispering a “g00d n1ght m1 hu3v0.” before once again like he has done those times before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The code however that has been stalking her hasn’t really disappeared though. Papa had to chase it off today because it got close to the dome again.

‘Dad? What do you think of the codes?’ She signs that night.

Her dad freezes at that, his arm doing the weird glitching thing for a second, before he laughs nervously, “why d0 y0u 45k?”

‘There is one that keeps stalking me. It scares me..’ She explains.

She glances up, expecting to see his expression change to anger like how Papa’s would do when she told her about seeing the code again. But, instead found shock.

Shock, and what seems to be a hint of regret?

“5t4lk1ng?” he asks. Voice wavering a bit.

‘It's everywhere I am.’ Flippa further explains.

“..w3ll th3n th4t5 n0t g00d, huh? 1 w0uldn’t tru5t 1t.” His voice seems to muffle for a second, breaking and repeating at the end like a broken piece of technology.

Flippa frowns, ‘Dad are you okay?’

Dad blinks, before a grin comes back to his face, she can tell it’s forced. He would never let any of his own pain show in front of her, “m3? Y34h. w3’ll k33p @n 3y3 0ut f0r th4t c0d3 t0n1ght. 1’ll k1ck 1t’5 455 1f 1t 3v3n l00k5 4t y0u.”

They continued on that night as if nothing happened.

And weirdly since that night, there hasn’t been a sighting of that code since. The forest around the house seems quiet, and there have been no glowing green eyes staring out from the trees.

It’s actually a bit more unsettling because before she knew exactly what was out there, and the codes kept away the monsters, but there are no codes now, and she has started seeing more zombies and skeletons out in those woods staring at her with their undead eyes filled with hunger or a keen will to strike at anything that moves.

Flippa was about to leave for her nightly escapade to secretly spend the night with her dad, but was surprised to see him instead having crawled up the vines on the side of the house, knocking on her window and looking behind him nervously.

Flippa opens the window and quickly moves aside to allow her dad to come inside and quickly shut the door behind him. She just stares at him in confusion.

Dad looks like he was about to say something, before hesitating and signing instead, ‘sorry about this sudden entrance that way. Is your mother awake?’

Flippa thinks, before shaking her head no.

Dad seems to think to himself for a moment, before signing ‘might as well keep doing this just to be safe. We can do stuff in here quietly to not wake him. Too dangerous outside.’

‘Codes?’ Flippa signs curiously.

Dad just winces and shakes his head no, ‘a lot of monsters. Almost died out there myself. Didn’t know they would attack me like that. They usually stay away.’

Flippa just stares at him confused. To which Dad chuckles a little, signing, ‘nothing to read into there Flippa’

Flippa just raises an eyebrow, but nods.

Dad just leans back, and gives her a toothy smile, to which Flippa notices his teeth are sharper than she remembers them ever being. ‘have anything you wanna do? Quiet stuff please.’

It was a nice night. Flippa ended up just drawing while dad just hung out, watching as she told him stories from the day. She told him how she’s also noticed the influx of monsters. And how she had fun today playing with Tilin who was over for the day.

‘If i can have a sleepover with Tilin here one night they can join us too!’ Flippa excitedly signs.

Dad however seems to stare down at the floor.

Then speaks, barely a whisper, for the first time that night, “...w0uld T1l1n w4nt t0 533 m3?”

Flippa looks confused by that, ‘yeah? Dad, Tilin doesn’t hate you. Never did. It was an accident. One you fixed even.’

‘y3@h…but-”

But Flippa hits him to cut him off, ‘Shut up. You made a mistake. You tried to protect us and swung too far. And we are here again. Tilin wants to see you, Dad.’

Dad is quiet, before he speaks again, “...1’ll 533 T1l1n 1f f0r 50m3 r3@50n th3y w4nt t0 533 m3 4g@1n. Ju5t 45k th3m f1r5t.”

Flippa just nods in approval, ‘would have anyways.’

Dad smiles weakly, before standing up. He starts to sign again, ‘Well. You should probably get to bed.’

Flippa pouts, but dad just chuckles, moving aside her drawing like a delicate masterpiece and bringing her to her bed once again to tuck her in. He kisses her forehead, brushing her unbraided hair away from her eyes and carefully takes her glasses off setting them where they always go.

“5l33p w3ll. I’ll 4lw@y5 k33p y0u 54f3.”

And like always, in the blink of an eye her dad is gone.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Charlie has learned how to be more sneaky. How to blend in better with the nature around him. How to not be so noticeable.

He did it for his daughter who is scared of what he has become of course, but some unfortunate side effects come with his presence not being so written so heavily in these parts of the woods. So monsters have taken claim, and they do not like when a code tries to steal what they believe is theirs. So multiple times now does he need to rip apart a couple zombies or skeletons to not get killed himself. Not that they don’t get their own good hits on him.

Currently he is nursing a nasty hit to his shoulder where an arrow sunk deep into code corrupted slime. The pain and annoyance ended up causing a bit of a little not as explored animalistic side to his new condition to show. He still shivers at the feeling of gratification he got ripping apart a skeleton crunching its bones into dust between powerful jaws as the skeleton shook . He’s unsure if the undead feel pain, but if it did that was surely a sign of that.

Currently he is watching. Watching as Mariana and Flippa gather sticks and flowers and other items from the forest floor. Flippa chirping happily, pocketing pretty pebbles, and even pocketing a small coin he himself found a couple days ago that he decided Flippa would have a blast finding.

It was nice. A domestic experience that he would kill to be experiencing with rather than observing as a monster from the shadows, but there isn’t exactly anything he can do about that part either. He’s content knowing they are doing fine though.

So when there is a growing threat, Charlie of course is the first to notice.

It has gotten dark out, Mariana is leading Flippa back, holding a lantern to guide the way, both of them clearly tired from the long day.

That they don’t notice the two other glowing green eyes that are not of Charlie’s own staring at them.

He lets out a growl, quiet enough for the human and the dragon egg not to hear, but should be loud enough for the two codes clearly stalking his family to.

But that doesn’t seem to do anything, as in a split second Charlie watches as two codes, one tinier one, with paws, claws unsheathed, and a lashing tail. It hisses. Then there is a large bulkier one with a scaled plated armor, horns, wings, and seems ready to breathe out codefire from its mouth and snarls loudly at the two it was claimed as prey.

“Juana. detrás de mí” (Juana. Behind me.) Mariana demands as she pulls out a grave metal axe and readies it, glaring at the two codes circling them.

They are in danger, his family is in danger. He can’t exactly just let that happen, can he?

And with that, Charlie springs into action, throwing himself out from the cover of his shadows as he growls and proceeds to tackle the smaller code as a fight starts up.

“01101101 01111001 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01111001” The smaller code yowls in binary as it struggles, trying to fight against him, but as a larger creature, and one associated with slimes, it is no use as he easily consumes it in his code goop.

He pants as he feels his body redistribute the code through his system. He’s aware of what's happening. He was told by friendly codes that if you consume a code you gain their traits. He feels more powerful, and his vision and hearing sharpens in the night as his stability when on all fours fixes itself as his clawed goopy hands start to shift into looking more paw-like. 

But his thoughts return as he looks over to see the larger code staring at him, before bellowing and running directly at him. He yelps a bit, moving out of the raging code’s path as he watches it move to attack him for consuming its friend. 

He could run. That’s what his instincts yell at him to do. That code is huge.

But then he looks back at his family. How Mariana seems to be aiming her aggression at the both of them now, how Flippa looks terrified hiding behind Mariana’s cape, shaking.

He can’t give up.

Not when their lives are in danger.

And so Charlie fixes his attention at the raging code in front of him.

And he goes for the neck.


––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It all happened very quickly. A battle between two codes probably fighting over who gets to eat them both. Papa holds her close as they try to back off, hoping maybe they can escape in the heat of the battle.

But it seems to be harder to do then just leave though, since it looks like the battle is catching the attention of monsters and they are only safe from them when around the codes.

The battle is close, both codes fighting dearly for life, but at the end one comes out the winner, and in front of them stands a bloodied code, panting, and seemingly trying to maneuver in it’s new body as it stumbles forward, wings having sprouted from the previously just goopy code’s back. Mariana brings her closer and backs up more, holding her axe out threateningly.

The code stares between the two of them, before letting out a pained whine, then a chuckle.

“50rry. N3v3r m3@nt t0 5c4r3 y0u.”

Before it’s eyes droop and it collapses to the ground, very obviously having passed out.

Mariana takes the chance, putting the axe in the weapon carrier on her back and quickly picking Juana up and running for their lives.

But

Flippa can’t ignore something about that situation.

That code spoke in her dad’s voice.

And it damn well fought like it had something to lose here. 

Chapter Text

After that night Papa seems anxious. Thrown off by the occurrence.

Mariana held Flippa tight as she ranted on.

“Ha hablado. El código habló. Cómo habló? Ni idea. Pero habló, y se disculpó.” (It spoke. The code spoke. How did it speak? No idea. But it spoke, and it apologized.) Papa looks like he is about to go insane as he rambles on about the whole situation to tio Roier.

“Mariana… amigo mío... escúchate, pendejo” (Mariana….my friend…listen to yourself, dumbass) Roier sighs, “ Habló un código? ” ( a code spoke?)

“Sí! Juro que pasó!” (Yes! I swear it happened!) Mariana exclaims, “Juana también lo vio, verdad mami?” (Juana saw it too, right mami?)

Juana nods, causing Roier to shrug. “De acuerdo, sí, quizás viste un código.

Pero disculpándose? Ahí es donde empieza mi sospecha.” (Okay, Yes, perhaps you did see a code. But it apologizing? That's where my suspicion starts.)

“Juro que lo hice! Nos miró, se disculpó y se desmayó! (I swear I did! It looked at us, apologized and passed out!) Mariana exclaims, sitting back in his chair with a sigh.

“Mariana, es tarde. Quizá dormir un poco te ayude a procesarlo.” (Mariana, it's late. Maybe getting some sleep may help you process.) Roier gives Mariana a worried look. 

Mariana frowns, “pero me crees, verdad?” (You believe me though, right?)

“Sí. Pero antes de intentar nada deberíamos esperar a que te pongas de acuerdo. Esto acaba de pasar, verdad?” (Yes. But before we try anything we should probably wait for you to get your thoughts together. This just happened, right?) Roier asks.

“sí, sí, hace un par de hora” (yes, yes, a couple of hours ago) Mariana confirms. Before giving Roier a thankful look, “Gracias, Roier.”

“no te preocupes. Qué tal si vuelvo mañana? A ver entonces cómo te sientes por todo lo que ha pasado?” (no worries. How about I come back tomorrow? See how you are feeling about all that happened then?) Roier questions.

“Claro.” (sure) Mariana agrees.

Roier stands up walking to the door, saying “buenas noches a los dos” (have a good night you two) Before leaving.

Mariana yawns, setting down Juana as she stands up to stretch. “vamos a la cama, Juana” (Let’s go to bed, Juana)

Flippa nods, walking to her room and onto her bed.

Mariana followed behind, giving her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, “Buenas noches, Juanaflippa, dormir bien.” (Good night, Juanaflippa, sleep well.)

‘Goodnight papa’ Flippa signs.

When Mariana leaves the room Flippa is immediately back up, grabbing her backpack as she packs her gun and a sword inside.

That code was clearly dad. She needs to bring him back home again.

She sits on her bed, waiting a while longer, kicking her feet impatiently, before standing up again, hoping papa is in his room at this point as she sneaks forward, quietly shutting doors behind her and sneaking down the stairs.

Juana pauses when she hears footsteps, but then hears the quiet clicking of a door shutting and she lets out the breath she was holding in. She walks into the kitchen, as quietly as possible digging around until she locates what she was looking for. Avocado toast.

Papa always said this was dad’s favorite. If she is going to get dad back, especially after that, she might need to lure him. With a good amount packed up, Juana carefully sneaks out the front door, and when she is in the clear, she starts on her way in the direction of where she last saw dad.

Surprisingly it is not that far. The house is only just barely out of sight when she spots him, licking at the wounds that he sustained from that battle with the other code.

Flippa tosses a piece of avocado toast his way and the code version of her dad’s ears immediately perk in her direction as the code suddenly jolts up, looking around, a low growl sounding from his throat.

Flippa guesses she was obscured by something currently as dad calms slightly, apprehensively approaching the direction of the avocado toast. He makes a small beeping noise as he finds the toast, and when Flippa can clearly see he is eating it she sets up her trap. She sets up a trail of Avocado toast directly into the backyard. Into the dome.

And it happens as she expects. As dad walks in for the last piece, the door’s automatic latching activates and it shuts behind him.

Dad looks back from the sound, and a panicked growl escapes his throat as he paws at the door trying to get it open again, clearly not liking being trapped like this.

He looks around wildly, and when his eyes land on her, he lets out a snarl, baring his teeth, before a look of recognition takes to his face and he shows a look of fear, cowering slightly as she walks forward.

‘I know it’s you, dad.’ Flippa signs.

He cowers back more, ears pinning back as he understands very clearly what she signed.

‘Please. Just listen to me. Just hear me out, I would never kill you or tell anyone about you like this.’

Dad just stares, hesitating, before speaking. “Sh0uld h@v3 kn0wn y0u w0uld f1gur3 1t 0ut. Y0’r3 4 5m@rt k1d.”

Flippa smiles, ‘thanks. Sorry for trapping you. You most likely would have run if I told you I knew out there.’

“Y34h…” Dad trails off, before sighing, “W@5 1t th3 v01c3?”

Flippa nods.

“...y0u’r3 n0t 5c@r3d?”

‘You protected me and papa out there. Why would I be scared of you?’ Flippa tilts her head confused.

“B3c4u53….y0u kn0w…” he trails off, and motions to himself with a paw.

‘You never attacked me. I thought you might before…but with all of this context now…well. That’s just clearly the truth now.’ Flippa signs, and goes forward more now and stands in front of dad who looks at her with wide eyes.

‘Can you stay now that I know? Please. I miss you. You can protect me better by living with me.’ Flippa begs.

Dad hesitates, glancing around, before his eyes land on Flippa again, who looks up at him with wide open eyes.

Fuck. He can never say no to his daughter now, can he?

“....w1ll M@r14n4 0r th3 r35t 0f th3 p@r3nt5 kn0w?” He asks as a final plea to maybe get her to reconsider.

Flippa shakes her head no, and with a confident plan in her eyes, signs, ‘I’ll keep you secret. Nobody will ever know you were here.’

Well fuck him, guess he’s staying.

“F1n3.”

Flippa cheers, jumping around excitedly as she runs forward hugging him tightly.

Charlie tries his best to return, lifting his free front paw and bringing it around Flippa as some sort of hug.

‘I’ll get you more avocado toast inside. We just need to sneak upstairs again to my room.’ Flippa signs with a sneaky grin, as she moves forward, quietly opening the back sliding door and motions for dad to enter. Which he tries to do as quietly as possible as a giant code monster. He barely fits in, but when he does Flippa sneaks in after, quietly shutting the door behind her and motioning for dad to go up the stairs.

As it turns out, apparently codes numbers glow in very dark spaces so she can kinda see around her, as she watches as dad tries to get up the stairs the best he can when these stairs are clearly not built for someone like him. Flippa trails, and when they are both up the stairs it’s a clear way, and they both sneak into her room.

When they both get into the room, Juanaflippa sighs in relief, as she slides down her door, glad they both managed to get up there with no loud noises.

“...wh@t n0w?” breaks the silence as dad stares at her curiously.

Juana hums, digging into her bag and tossing him the rest of the avocado toast, which he gladly takes as he plops down on the ground and starts to devour them.

Juana smiles. She looks around the room, trying to figure out where he can sleep and or hide when the time comes, but freezes when she realizes she never really thought that far ahead, mainly focusing on getting dad back here.

‘I…didn’t think about where you will sleep or hide.” Juana signs, admitting her issue.

Dad looks up, “w3ll..” He glances around, and when his eyes land on the bed, he sizes it up, before answering, “th15 m@y 5upr153 y0u but und3r y0ur b3d w1ll w0rk.” and to demonstrate she watches as he slides under her bed surprisingly easy, and she watches as two 0’s stare at her, before “1 c@n f1t und3r m@ny th1ng5 l1k3 th15 5upr151ngly.”

Flippa nods, ‘that's settled then. And the closet can be a second hiding option for a place to hide.’ She slides the avocado toast he left closer to the bed, and she watches as he makes a small almost clicking like noise as a paw reaches out and pulls the avocado toast under with him. Hopping on top of her bed, she realizes she can’t sign him a good night like this! She grabs her notebook from the bed stand next to her bed, quickly writing a ‘good night’ before dropping it to her dad.

A small swish, a chuckle, “g00d n1ght m1 hu3v0. 5l33p w3ll”

Flippa smiles, taking off her glasses, and tucking herself in. She is glad to have her whole family back again. Life is great. 

Chapter Text

As it turns out, it is harder than you would think to hide a code in your house. Flippa found that out very fast. She will give them..or at least the one that is in fact her dad the benefit of the doubt that at least he is very good with hiding. Even though he is a huge code that is a foot taller than Papa, he can fit comfortably under her bed, in her closet, or even when on the first floor underneath the floorboards. It’s kind of funny and also makes her curious on what else dad could fit under. But also dad is not a lab experiment so Flippa just sighs, and resigns herself to just knowing what she has seen him hide under in the house.

Today Tilin is coming over for a sleepover!

“Juana, mencionaste que querías tener una pijamada con Tilin, verdad?” (Juana, you mentioned that you wanted to have a sleepover with Tilin, right?) Mariana asks as he sets toast in front of Juana as she sits across, biting into his own slice.

Juana nods.

“Tilin pasará la noche aquí. Le recogeremos hoy más tarde.” (Tilin will be spending the night tonight. We’ll be picking him up later today.) Mariana explains.

Flippa grins, jumping up shoving a slice of toast in her mouth while grabbing the rest, signing ‘I need to get ready now!’ before sprinting up the stairs with the rest of her toast with a plan to feed and explain everything to dad as she gets ready, leaving a baffled Mariana, who just chuckles, happy at her daughter’s enthusiasm as she goes to take care of the left over plate left by Flippa in her hastiness.

Flippa running into the room clearly woke up dad, as she sees two zeros blink open and a yawn escape from the code under her bed, as Flippa sits down on the ground, setting the toast on the ground, tail thumping and wings flapping in excitement as she watches as the giant code crawls out from under the bed and sits down beside her to eat it’s own meal for the morning.

‘Morning, dad!’ Flippa signs.

A low rumbly chuckle, before the code speaks, “Y0u’r3 3xcit3d. wh@t h4pp3n3d?”

Dad watches as Flippa signs, eating his last piece of toast.

‘TIlin will be spending the night tonight!’

The Code’s eyes widen as his ears pin back a little, “0h…wh4t5 th3 pl@n f0r k33p1ng m3 h1dd3n th3n? D1ff3r3nt r00m? 0ut51d3?”

Flippa shakes head, ‘no you’re staying inside. I’ll just explain everything to Tilin!’

Dad frowns a little, and shakes his head, “th3r3 15 @ r3450n 1’m h1dd3n, Fl1pp4. 1f @ny0n3 5335 m3 1’m 45 g00d @5 d34d.”

Flippa frowns, shaking her head, ‘Dad I trust Tilin. You know Tilin. They would never do anything to get you killed.’

Dad looks away, not meeting her eyes, “W3ll….y3@h but….”

Juana sighs, signing, ‘Dad you promised to meet Tilin if they agreed to wanting to see you.’

“..but wh4t 1f th3y 54y n0?”

‘Well. Guess it’s outside for you then. But i'm certain they’ll want to see you. Tilin has been asking me on updates on finding you.’ Flippa signs. 

“F1n3.” Dad finally caves, but he does not exactly look very excited about it. Tail between legs as he goes back under the bed, “1’ll tru5t y0ur w0rd th3n.”

Flippa grins, signing closer to the ground so dad can see from under the bed, ‘we’ll be back soon’ before grabbing her backpack and running down the stairs to meet up with papa again.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

To say it lightly, Charlie was not looking forward to the rest of the day. He adores Tilin, truly, they are a very good egg and one he would do anything for. And they are Juanaflippa’s best friend.

He fixed everything. All the dead eggs are back, and he’s a code now. Everything went as planned and everyone thinks he’s dead…well except Mariana and very clearly Flippa now obviously. But the dread still gnaws at the back of his head. He’s scared to see Tilin again. After everything that he did, he would understand if Tilin would be terrified of him. Especially how he is now.

But a flaw of his is he can never say no to Juanaflippa. Simply put, he would do anything, even kill someone for her. So that includes agreeing to plans that he is not looking forward to such as seeing the egg he accidentally killed that one night once again.

As of now, all he can hope is Tilin says no and Flippa will let him just sleep in those woods once again for the night in order to not have to confront any other eggs or islanders again. 

He can hear the door open downstairs.

Oh that’s quick.

Charlie sniffs, expecting the familiar scents of his family and a new egg he’ll have to fight the growing urge from the code instincts in him to try and eat. But instead of the smell of family, he’s met with the smell of paper, dirt, and a vague hint of blood and perhaps a touch of egg yolk.

He hates that he can even pick up on even a small bit of egg yolk scent, but that’s something he’ll have to dissect later. Right now there are intruders inside the house. He can’t help the growl that starts to build in his throat as he half melts into the floor of the second level, peering down to watch what is clearly now Cucurucho and some of his workers now digging around the house.

Cucurucho points to two of the workers and motions for upstairs, and Charlie internally curses as he un-goops from the floor and hides more under the bed.

The door slams open and Charlie has to hold back the urge to snarl and defend his territory from these intruders as they move around. One of them gets too close for his comfort to the bed and without thinking he swipes at their leg, causing the now injured worker to fall back clutching their now injured foot.

The other worker stops the rummaging, pausing and looking between their fellow worker and the bed, before tossing some bandages over and continuing rummaging. Until they find….one of his old shirts in a chest? The worker writes something down on a book then pockets the shirt and walks back up to the injured worker who has just finished tying up the injury.

The injured worker keeps staring directly at the bed, which causes Charlie to worry a little as he hides further under the bed as he can.

The Worker with his shirt sets a hand on the injured worker, and helps them up before they both leave the room.

When no longer being scared of being spotted while spying, Charlie goes back to staring at the workers as they seem to have just finished up looking around, before Cucurucho speaks “Eggxile now.”

And all the workers pull out warp stones, all disappearing in a wave of magic leaving behind a hint of the smell of seawater as the house is quiet again.

What the fuck was that?

Good to know the federation is looking into something with him? Or not?

Honestly he has no clue what just happened.

Charlie sits there alone with his thoughts until the door to Flippa’s room opening snapped him out of his thoughts and he smells two very familiar eggs have made their way inside.

Flippa is leading the way and shuts the door behind them when they are both inside. Tilin sets their own bed down too right next to Flippa’s and Charlie taking advantage of the now larger space of bed now spreads out a little more so he is not as cramped under just one egg bed.

‘You said you had something to tell me when I was here?’ Charlie watches Tilin sign as they sit next to Flippa on the floor as Flippa sits down and discards her backpack.

‘Yeah. I have an update on where dad is. But…’ Flippa glances to where he is, before turning her attention back to Tilin who stares at her intently but curious, ‘I need you to promise not to tell anyone.’

‘Sure, but why?’ Tilin signs, confused on why Flippa would request that.

‘He…lets say does not in fact look like what he used to and could freak our parents out’ Flippa explains, ‘but he is in here now if you want to see him.’

Tilin’s eyes light up, bouncing slightly in excitement, ‘Tio Slime is in here?’

‘Yes’ Flippa nods, ‘promise me you won’t freak out when you see him though.’

Tilin nods, before going up to stand, bouncing on their feet excitedly looking around trying to find where he is.

Flippa nods, ‘dad you can come out now.’ Flippa once again signs, closer to the ground so he can see it better.

Well. Here goes nothing. And Charlie crawls out from under the bed. He tries not to stand to his full height, worrying about scaring Tilin too much, but is pleasantly surprised when Tilin sees him and immediately runs to cling tightly to him.

And Tilin…cries? He can feel tears starting to absorb into his code, and Charlie tries his best to comfort, sitting down and bringing a paw around Tilin, who moves with his paw moving to hug him closer. Charlie glances over to Flippa who just sits there with a smug I told you so look.

“Uh…h3y T1l1n.” Charlie speaks quietly in greeting of the sobbing egg.

Tilin pulls away, eyes red from crying as they sign ‘I thought you were dead!’ 

Charlie contemplates explaining his thought process when he wrote the book, to say he thought he was going to be dead too from the deal, but he decides not to, saying “n0p3. 1t’ll b3 h4rd3r t0 k1ll m3 th3n th4t.”

Tilin smiles weakly at that.

“1..1 ju5t w@nt t0 54y 50rry. f0r k1ll1ng y0u. Y0u d353rv3d b3tt3r. Th4t 15 why 1 t00k th4t d3@l.” Charlie sighs. “Th4t w@5 th3 l3@5t 1 c0uld d0.”

‘You were trying to protect me, tio, I understand. I forgive you.’ Tilin signs.

Charlie’s eyes widen at that…and well now it’s his turn to start to cry. He starts to wipe tears from his eyes as he smiles down at Tilin, “th4nk y0u. 1 d0n’t d353rv3 f0rg1v3n355 but th@nk y0u.”

Tilin frowns at that, and goes to dig through their bag, before pulling out a red tulip, shoving it at him with a huff, ‘you do though! You are a good tio! I was going to leave this at your grave but now I know you are alive this is better. Take.’ Tilin signs and shoves the Tulip once again at him.

Charlie sighs, and smiles at Tilin, holding out a paw to Tilin to put the tulip on. Having paws now is very obviously a curse now, because he can’t hold items to his chest to show appreciation now he can’t hold anything. “th@nk y0u.” Charlie simply takes it, and places it next to him on the ground.

Flippa watches, before suddenly standing up and rushing out of the room leaving a baffled Charlie and Tilin. She rushes back in with an unused backpack. ‘Use this backpack to keep valuables in!’ She signs, before sitting down beside both of them, giving them both looks of confirmation, before picking up the Tulip and placing it inside the backpack for safekeeping and placing it near her bed.

The eggs grin, glancing between each other, but is interrupted by a knock at the door, and Mariana calling, “la cena, huevos!” (Dinner, eggs!)

Both eggs share a glance before Flippa signs, ‘we’ll be back soon. And we can both sneak up something for you to eat!’

Charlie chuckles, moving to slide under the bed once again, “h4v3 fun y0u tw0.” Before completely hiding under the bed once more.

He watches as Flippa and Tilin wave as they go to open the door and leave.

He’s about to fall asleep when he is awoken by the eggs rushing in…who knows how long after and…is that cake?

‘It was a soup so that would have been hard to sneak up but papa made a cake yesterday and I snuck a slice for you.’ Flippa signs proudly. 

Charlie slides out from under the bed once again and moves over to stare at the slice of cake. “Wh4t w@5 th3 c@k3 f0r?”

Flippa shrugs, ‘Papa brought some to Tio Quackity too when picking up Tilin.’

Well either way, he is not going to decline some cake. Charlie quickly eats the piece, licking off any frosting that got on his face when eating, before stretching and laying down next to the two eggs. 

Charlie is not paying attention, closing his eyes peacefully as he is splayed out laying next to the eggs. Until he feels a tap.

Glancing over, he sees Tilin holding some nail polish some of the eggs use to paint their talons, before asking ‘Can we paint your claws?’

Charlie shrugs, “g0 f0r 1t.” Stretching out his paw to Tilin letting the dragon eggs fiddle with his paws trying to figure out how to get the claws to fully unsheath. Charlie chuckles, putting in the effort to do that for them.

He sees them stiffen at them. Flippa looking at him confused, ‘dad, is that blood on them?’

Oh, right. Shit.

He shouldn’t tell them what happened, that might stress out the eggs. “1t5 n0th1ng. 4ccid3nt@lly cut my53lf 0n s0m3th1ng.” He lies.

‘Be more careful.’ Flippa signs as she goes to get something to wipe the blood off on, returning with a wet cloth and cleaning the blood off his claws, and drying with another before tossing the rags in the trash, and turning to Tilin, ‘you pick a color’

The rest of the night consists of the eggs signing back and forth painting his claws different colors, and at the end of it both eggs in bed resting peacefully, and Charlie under the bed happy and tired, but also on alert.

Just in case the federation ever tries that shit ever again while the eggs are there.

Chapter Text

To Juana’s surprise she was going to have the house to herself that day.

It really wasn’t planned. Papa was checking his communicator while they were having breakfast and suddenly eyes widened and started typing back fast.

“Phil me preguntó si quería ir a ver Eggxile. Dijo que allí podría haber encontrado una pista sobre lo que pasó con Slime. Pero sería demasiado peligroso para ti venir.” (Phil asked me if I wanted to come along to check out Eggxile. He said he might have found a clue on what happened with Slime there. But it would be too dangerous for you to come with.) Mariana sighs. “Nadie ha dicho que puedan vigilarte, ya que gran parte de la isla está ocupada en estos momentos. Sin embargo, Roier dijo que podría pasar. Estarás bien?” (Nobody said they could watch you, as a lot of the island is busy as of now. Roier said he could stop in though. Will you be fine?)

Juana nods, ‘you can trust me! Everything will be fine!’ Juana signs with an assured grin.

“Eres una chica muy lista, te mantendrás a salvo.” (You're a very smart girl, you'll keep yourself safe.) Mariana smiles, and pulls her into a hug, before her communicator goes off once again and Mariana’s eyes widen.

“Tengo que irme. Adiós, Juana!” (I have to go now, bye Juana!) Mariana suddenly pulls away, grabs his backpack of supplies, throwing it over his shoulder and with a wave heads out.

Juana waits for the telltale sound of teleporting before rushing up the stairs excitedly, startling dad who was currently splayed out relaxed on a fuzzy rug she has in her room, as he jolts up, and backs up startled, about to growl when he sees it’s just Flippa and he lowers his guard a little.

“5c4r3d m3.” dad huffs.

‘We have the house to ourselves today! You don’t need to stay locked up in my room!’ Flippa signs excitedly.

Dad tilts his head slightly, “15 M@r14n4 n0t h0m3?”

Juana shakes her head, ‘went out for the day. Tio Roier might check up on me later but we can hide you before he sees you.’

Dad nods, standing up and stretching a bit, before looking at her, “wh@t d0 y0u w4nt t0 d0?”

Juana jumps, and runs out the door, leaving her confused code dad behind as she already has ideas on what to do all day since she can have him around without being caught by papa.

They run around the house for a while, Flippa running around, setting up little pranks for Papa later, and she even starts a game of hide and seek, which she finds out isn’t as fun when the person finding you can literally sniff out where you are.

And after hours, they both sit in the living room, Flippa doodling on a piece of paper with crayons as Charlie lays beside her, tuckering out from how much running he had to do to keep up with his energetic daughter when he has spent months how hidden in her room hiding from any of the islanders.

Juana is drawing her family to give to Papa later, when suddenly dad jolts up from his spot, letting out a low growl and to Juana’s surprise literally sinking into the floor, before a knock sounds and Flippa watches with wide eyes as tio Roier makes his way into the house.

“Hola Juana, cómo estás?” (Hi Juana, how are you?) Roier greets the egg.

‘Fine.’ Juana keeps short, hoping Roier just leaves after a bit knowing she is okay.

Roier however hums at that, glancing around the room curiously, “has estado dibujando, verdad? Eso es todo lo que has estado haciendo?” (you've been drawing, right? That's all you've been doing?)

Juana tenses up, ‘Yes?’ she nervously signs.

“Eso puede ser muy solitario. Qué tal si te llevo a mi casa esta noche? Puedes jugar con Bobby y quedarte a dormir. Estoy segura de que a Mariana le parecerá bien.” (That can be pretty lonely. How about I take you to my house tonight? You can play with Bobby and stay over. I'm sure Mariana will be fine with that.)

And a low growl permeates the air, causing Roier to tense and pull out a weapon, and at that moment Flippa just wants to get away from this mess already starting to form.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Shit, did he really just growl? Sure, how Roier was just trying to get Flippa to go with him was really getting on his nerves, and was pulling at the protective instincts that dwell in him as both a parent and now a code, but did he seriously have to make a noise? Now off all places? Now he has to find a way to get past this and make sure Roier doesn’t think a dangerous code was inside the house with Flippa the whole time.

He is quick, moving through the ground out of the house, and resurfaces outside of the house near the woods. However sadly it wasn’t far enough and he was spotted by Roier who was glancing around and he could see was holding Flippa close to him.

To put on the act of nope he totally wasn’t just inside the house, he lets out another growl, pacing the area.

He can hear a soft “ocultar” (Hide) as Roier suddenly opens the door and steps out, glaring daggers at him.

“Hey código!” (Hey code!) Roier shouts, clearly intending to fight him at this point.

Charlie however, has no intention of battle so he quickly runs.

“Bastardo!” (bastard) Roier growls as he makes chase now, making it very clear to Charlie he also has the intention of killing.

Charlie weaves between the trees, hoping to get Roier to lose track of him and just give up, but the spider hybrid is very intent, chasing and yelling profanities in spanish.

It’s when he’s cornered does he stop, finding himself at a dead end as walls of a large cave prevent him from going any further.

Roier is breathing heavily as he traps him, staring daggers at him. “Llevas tanto tiempo acechando los huevos. Por qué? POR QUÉ?” (You have been stalking the eggs for so long. why? WHY?) Roier shouts.

Charlie backs up, ears pinned back and puffing out a little, tail between legs as he stares terrified at Roier who is angrily yelling at him.

“No contesta? Muy bien. Es la muerte.” (No answer? Alright. Then you die.) Roier steps forward, and with a strong slash, gashes a large wound across his shoulder and stabs directly into his back.

He lets out a pained yowl and tries to fight back, throwing himself at Roier, slashing at him, and surprisingly with ease knocks the sword out of his hands, pinning the hybrid’s many arms to the ground as he snarls and glares down at Roier who glares right back up at him.

Roier coughs a little, a dribble of blood that as Charlie calms down a little from basically neutralizing the threat of Roier he figures comes from the deep clawed gashes in his chest.

Charlie panics at that, backing up a little, eyes widening at what he has done again in a fit of rage.

“5hit…1…uh…50rry.” He sputters out, before rushing past the bleeding man in front of him, ignoring the screaming in his limbs and how he leaves behind him a trail of a radioactive green blood that fizzles with electricity and code as he makes his escape once again into the woods scared once more by what he has become.

Chapter Text

It all happened so fast, Juana had no clue what was happening. Dad growled, tio Roier got protective, and suddenly he just ran out, yelling profanities and drawing a weapon.

Today was supposed to be her perfect day to spend without needing to hide dad, but clearly everything went downhill so fast, so now she sits, waiting for someone to come back. Someone to tell her what happened.

Well, that was what she wished for at first.

Roier stumbles into the house, covered in blood, clutching his chest, with a pained look on his face.

Juana is up in an instant, worried at how injured he is.

Roier looks to her, and gives a weak smile, before shrugging off his backpack and nudging it to her, “Puedes traerme una poción de salud, por favor?” (Can you grab me a health potion please?)

Juana nods, quickly grabbing the backpack and digging through, finding one of the bottles in the pack and handing it over to Roier, who gives her a thankful look, before uncapping and downing the potion. He visibly relaxes as the magic heals his wounds, but he still looks horrible with slashed open clothes and everything soaked in blood.

‘What happened?’ Juana nervously signs, as she worries now.

Roier sighs, “Estoy bien, no te preocupes por mí. Ese maldito código se escapó sin embargo. Lo lastimó bien, sin embargo. No debería ser muy difícil encontrarlo de nuevo. Sólo quédate dentro hasta que lo consideremos seguro.” (I'm fine, don't worry about me. That damn code got away though. hurt me good, though. Shouldn't be too hard to find it again. Just stay inside until we deem it safe.)

Flippa has to hide her relief that dad is still alive, but at least he’s not dead. she stares at the wounds.

Roier notices her staring. He laughs, “El código me hizo eso, pero sobreviví. Aunque probablemente saldré de esta con una cicatriz.” (Code did that to me, but I survived. will probably come out of this with a scar though.)

Mariana runs in, Phil tailing as they both get to the house again. When Mariana’s eyes lock on Juana, she sighs in relief and pulls Juana close into a hug.

Phil looks around, and when his eyes land on Roier he jumps and immediately starts digging into his bag.

“Phil, i’m fine. Juana already got me one of my own healing potion from my backpack. Looks worse then it is at this point.” Roier assures.

Mariana glances at Roier, setting Juana down on his lap, before saying “You should get changed. Phil and I won’t plan anything until you are back.”

Roier looks to Phil, who just nods, “Mariana’s right. You should get out of those bloodied clothes. Probably also get patched up where the potion didn’t help.”

When Roier is gone, true to their word they don’t discuss plans. Mariana just clings to Juana, as if scared she’ll vanish if he lets go, and Phil types into his communicator with furrowed eyebrows.

‘Did you find anything?’ Juana signs curiously.

“Nada. Sólo un extraño santuario que pensamos que podría tener algo que ver, pero nada.” (Nothing. Just a weird shrine that we think possibly could have something to do with it, but nothing.)

Phil looks up from the communicator curiously, and Mariana shakes her head, “Juana just wanted to know if we found anything.”

Phil nods, “We’re still seeing if we can find anything though. There has to be something .”

Roier comes back a couple minutes later, patched up and looking…almost new. He looks very tired. When Roier’s eyes land on Mariana, it is an instant “You were right. It spoke.”

Mariana’s eyes widen, as she sets Juana aside, and stands, “It was the one we saw? The one that saved Juana and I?”

Phil looks over at Mariana and Roier confused, “What are you talking about?”

Mariana looks to Phil, “two codes attacked Juana and I one night, and this one came in out of nowhere, killing the two other codes, and then spoke before passing out….But it attacked you, right?” Mariana’s eyes landed again on Roier.

“Yeah…but it seemed freaked out when it clawed me and apologized….It’s strange.” Roier says.

“Perhaps we can trap it? Figure out some stuff on the codes from it if it is able to communicate with us.” Phil suggests. “We’ll still have to treat it as a threat since it is still capable of attacking us and might not be friendly, but if it’s the first code we have ran into that speaks, maybe we can get important information on the codes and their intentions out of it.”

Mariana looks to Roier, “I think that would work if you are fine with it. It just almost killed you so you might not be as up for it, but if we can get anything out of a code it would be important. We can protect the eggs better.”

Roier nods, “And we can kill it if it's too dangerous, right?”

Phil nods, “Of course. Cellbit said he has a place we can keep it in to interrogate and study also.”

Roier nods, and grabs his backpack off the floor, and brandishing a sword, “Lets go hunt a code then.”

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Charlie found a cave that night, entering and curling around himself, cleaning the spot where he was stabbed, wincing at the pain that rolls over his body in waves as the adrenaline wears off and he is once again left alone, tending his own wounds in the night.

He really should have stayed quiet at that moment, but his brain screamed that Roier was too close and about to take his egg and he can’t let that happen.

At least the cave is vacant and there is a nice patch of moss he can lay on to rest and heal. And that was his plan, until late in the night familiar scents and familiar voices fill his senses.

“See I told you that it left a blood trail!” Roier whisper exclaims.

Does he really have to deal with this now? He’s too tired to fight back, and he clearly did just as much of a number on Roier as well.

He lets out a growl in warning, backing up, but is then greeted by two more familiar faces, and one lesser but he has seen before face, as Phil, Mariana, and…Cellbit he thinks the name is, look in.

Mariana seems to be holding something, and draws it out, and with a quick click and a whistle, something embeds itself into him, and next thing he knows a wave of drowsiness hits him as he collapses.

He hears Phil’s voice last, “Okay now it's sedated. Now how are we carrying this giant code to the order now?”

Chapter Text

He wakes up in a wave of confusion, an underlying sense of rage deep within, and hungry. The room is unfamiliar as he blinks his eyes open to a barely lit room surrounds him. He struggles to stand, wobbly on his feet, but when he does he becomes more aware of what he is in.

A large glass box. One littered with small holes to allow breathing, but an empty glass box nonetheless. Just outside the box lining it is cameras all aimed at him watching his every movement, and gods at that moment he wishes he could just extend a little of his magic to render those things useless for a second without being suspicious or anything, but he knows damn well how this place looks those things are very well taken care of and it would be weird if they stopped working.

The hissing of hydraulics and pistons catches his attention as the door opens revealing the four who put him in this situation in the first place.  He growls, backing up, staring at the four of them, not trusting anything they do at the moment. His stomach growls and he ignores the urge bubbling up in him to break out and kill them for sustenance. Cellbit holds a clipboard, and seems to note something down as he walks in, the other three following, all gawking at him now they can get a good look at him without being scared of attack. 

He feels like a zoo animal trapped in a glass enclosure being stared at by pointing kids. He really doesn’t want to be in this situation, and wishes they gave him somewhere he could hide, but that of course isn’t in there as he is left cornered in the open.

“Seeing it fully awake like this, that thing really is a beast of a code.” Phil comments walking over to the glass and staring at him.

“We didn’t have enough time to do measurements while it was still out,” Cellbit comments, “Probably won’t be able to do that now though. I’d say it’s probably 8 foot or similar”

“It grew after it consumed those two codes that attacked Juana and I, I think before that..it was around Slime’s height actually.” Mariana adds.

“Oh that's interesting actually.” Cellbit comments as he writes something on that clipboard.

Mariana after that walks over to the glass too, and glares through directly at him. Charlie slightly deflates from his aggression at that, ears pinning back, but doesn’t leave the corner he is backed into. He refuses to meet her eyes.

“Why do you stalk us? Why did you save us?” Mariana asks.

Charlie lowers himself, curling in on himself in the corner, tail tucked between legs.

“Answer us. We know you can speak!” Mariana shouts. He hits the glass.

“Hey, let's not get too angry here.” Phil is quick to intervene, “It most likely won’t respond yet it just woke up.”

Mariana shakes his head, muttering as she leaves the room.

Roier who was watching this all from next to Cellbit sighs, “Just give her a moment. I can understand the frustration here especially if I was in her shoes with Bobby.”

Phil nods, “Fair. Guess I would be the same way if that happened with Tallulah and Chayanne.”

“Guess we can give it some time to calm down then.” Cellbit decides, and leads them all away, leaving Charlie once again alone in the room.

Gods he’s hungry.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Flippa is worried.

It’s been a couple days now since that day, and Papa still refuses to give her any answers on anything happening. Just brushes her questions aside and says that she is safe now and that the code is contained and they are working to figure out stuff about them.

But she wants to know if dad’s okay. She can’t just directly ask about it because she is meant to keep it secret, but knowing dad is being kept in the order, not being allowed inside, and nobody telling her anything she is getting rather worried about him.

Dad always told her if she needed anything though, the temple for the gods is where to go. He was always insistent on it. Saying either he will find her himself, or she will be safe in general there. That the gods would protect her or help her in any way she needs.

Maybe it's time to ask a favor of the gods.

Quickly armoring up, she leaves the house hoping Papa doesn’t return while she's gone.

Dad always made sure she knows where it is too. The Federation built one right next to the train station for the religious members of the island. She’s been a couple times with dad and or papa, so she knows her way easily.

It's a large building, a very open building, each wall dedicated to a certain god, decorated to represent each and their domains.

 A forested mural with a lively sky and a detailed underground, crystals and handcrafted tools laid out as blessings. A monument for Nature.

Beside that is a split mural for three sides. Nether, End, and in between the afterlife. The three domains of Realm

A mural of many forms of life, all in different stages, babies, adults, the elderly, of animals, humans, humanoids, and the monsters that roam the night. A small sign is hidden at the side of the mural saying, “note how no codes are present in the mural of Life”

And last is a crowded mural. One of fruit, of harvest, of humans and humanoids hunting, waves of green magic swaying across the sky and intertwined in everything. Many enchanted books and items are placed beside the mural along with parts of the harvests of some, hoping for a blessing of a great yield the next year.

In the center lay areas of prayer. Chairs, kneeling mats, empty space for those who need the space for disability. Where you can aim your direction to any god, or look up to pray to them all.

She decides to lay on one of the mats directly in the center, and look up at the ceiling, and close her eyes.

She prays, Life, Realm, Nature, Magic, whoever receives this please I need your help. I want to help my dad, he’s in a situation that is hurting him and I want to help him. Either find, or free, or whatever I can do. Please give me advice.

Juana opens her eyes and looks down, wishing with her all she is answered.

“Well, we can’t do anything to help, really, but we can be here for you.” A voice answers, and Flippa looks beside her to see the Antlered deity of Life sitting beside her, an understanding look on his face. He takes off his sunglasses, revealing glowing dark blue eyes. “We can assure you he’s safe. Nothing will happen to him to cause any harm.”

‘Why can’t you help?’ She signs.

“Not our place to interfere.” Another voice adds in, and Flippa turns around to see Realm beside her as well, standing rather than sitting. “We’re sorry we can’t do better though.”

Flippa nods, ‘Thank you for answering. Did not expect you to appear though.’

Realm chuckles, “This is our area. We can do as we please here, and Life over there even likes to stay down here to just chat with visitors when he can and hide he's one of the gods”

“It gets boring in Molympus..” Life grumbles, before sighing, and setting a hand on her shoulder, “But you looked like you needed a visual answer, so here we are.”

‘Should I expect Magic to appear all of a sudden now too?’

Life shakes his head, “Nah he’s in a little bit of a predicament right now. But he would have if he could.” Life pauses, before laughing, “In fact he just told me that he gives his blessings for you and he’ll kick my ass if I don’t do that as well. Which I already did so he can relax.”

Flippa smiles a bit at that, ‘if it doesn’t get conveyed from my feelings tell him thank you. I’ve always felt a strange connection to him and his domain.’

Life chuckles, “Yeah there's a rea-OW CALM DOWN” Life yelps as Realm comes over and kicks him before he completes his sentence.

“Sorry about this, but we both need to go now, being down in the mortal world like this is draining for both of us.” Realm apologizes, “But feel free to pray for us whenever we will answer.”

“Also. Mariana is about to show up here.” Life warns, as Realm drags him away through a portal.

Right as the two gods leave, the door opens and as they warned, Papa comes walking in, looking slightly annoyed with head in hands.

Flippa is quick to go back to pretend she is praying.

“Juana? ué haces aquí?” (Juana? What are you doing here?) Mariana asks suddenly.

Flippa quickly looks up, ‘praying’ she answers.

“Caminaste hasta aquí tú solo?” (Did you walk here by yourself?) Mariana’s eyebrows furrow.

Juana nods.

Mariana sighs, “por favor, díselo a alguien la próxima vez. Es peligroso, podrían atacarte.” (please tell someone next time. It's dangerous, you could be attacked.)

‘Sorry’ she signs.

“Está bien. Vas a volver conmigo ahora, supongo que puedo llevarte a la orden ya que sería un poco fuera del camino para llevarte de vuelta a casa” (It's fine. You're coming back with me now, guess I can take you to the order since it would be a bit out of the way to get you back home) Mariana sits beside her, “pero por ahora estamos rezando.” (but for now we are praying.)

Juana nods, and starts to pray again, thank you. 

Chapter Text

The building is strange. Papa called it The Order if Juana recalls correctly. A strange underground facility with dark walls and winding hallways.

“This way, Mami.” Mariana encourages as she leads her down a hallway, stopping at a door where Mariana ushers her in.

Phil and Cellbit are in there currently, looking at a screen their heads seem to block from her view.

Cellbit turns around, and spotting them both he raises an eyebrow, “You brought Juanaflippa?”

This catches Phil’s attention as he turns around to face them too now.

“She snuck out to go to the island’s temple for the gods. Didn’t exactly have time to drop her off at home so she’s here with us today.” Mariana explains.

Cellbit shrugs, and goes back to looking at the screen, however Phil raises an eyebrow “Oh? Not many go to the temple. Are you the religious type, Mariana?”

Mariana shrugs, and enters the room more, giving Juana a pat on the head and going to sit near the screen too. “I’d say a little bit, yeah. If praying to the gods helps us get answers on Slime i’ll do everything I can.”

Juana follows, pulling another chair and sitting up next to Papa, and finally gets a look of the screen.

It’s security cameras. The camera keeps switching to keep the best angle.

Currently Dad is up on two legs, trying to stick his claws in the seal of what looks to be a hatch at the top of a glass box he’s trapped in.

“Has…it still been trying to escape?” Mariana asks.

“It’s always either sleeping, pacing, or trying to escape.” Cellbit answers.

As if responding to that, on the feed dad seems to give up, and curls in on himself in the corner. She notices he looks a bit thinner. Is he not getting fed enough?

Juana taps Mariana, before signing ‘has it been fed?’

Mariana raises an eyebrow, “Yeah? we’ve been giving it two pieces of raw meat a day.”

“It gets rather ravenous when fed too.” Phil comments lightheartedly.

‘Maybe it needs more food and that will calm it down?’ Juana suggests.

“Maybe…but has not been working with us currently.” Cellbit sighs, “it tries to bite us when we feed it.”

‘Maybe I can try and talk to it?’ Flippa suggests.

“No.” Mariana is instant.

Flippa frowns ‘is it not safely locked up?’

“Yes. But it's way too dangerous. That’s a code. It wants to kill you.” Mariana states.

‘Did it not save us in the past?’ Flippa insists, ‘Roier chased after it to kill it. Maybe it was self defense. It also apologized to him.’

Mariana still shakes her head, “still too dangerous.”

Flippa glares and hops down, going to the door.

“Where do you think you are going?” Mariana watches her, and starts to stand up.

‘To see the code.’ and she quickly runs out, and blocks the door before going to find her dad.

Flippa can hear panicking from the room as she runs down the hallway, trying to find anything. When she sees a door that is different from the rest, she opens it.

And there is her dad, Sitting in the box.

Hearing the noise of the door opening, he jolts up, growling loudly at whoever has come in. But when he recognizes his eyes widen, as he immediately shrinks down, pushing himself more into the corner. Ears pinned back.

Her eyes look to the cameras, and realizing they could probably interpret if she signed it, she pulls out a notebook and goes over to where he is curled up, and writes ‘Dad are you okay?’

When he doesn’t turn around she taps at the glass.

Charlie glances up, seeing the sign, before going back to curled up.


“H̷̼͔̮͚̤̝̱̥͙͙̯͊̃̍̒́͆̏̓͋̿̈́̑͝ͅǘ̷̠̖͕̞̗̼̠͘n̴͈̺̫̟͔̘̦͕̜̱̼̍̿̌͂̐́͠ͅͅǵ̵̨̨̧̮̫͔̬̪̥̰̯̼͋̊̅̈́͋͆̒͌̓̊̑̕͠͝r̶͉̯̬͊͑̈́͂̔y̵̨̳͖̑͋̾̈́̌͘” (Hungry) he mumbles.


voice more corrupted and hoarse, from lack of speaking she can assume.

‘Here’ she writes, before digging through her bag, finding some food and quickly handing it over to him. 

In an instant he is up devouring the food. She glares up at the cameras to prove her point that she was correct.

She moves to sign language again, ‘you feel better?’

“y3@h…th4nk5..” He thanks her, and slumps over near where she is.

When Mariana finally makes it to the room, he looks pissed as he runs forward, grabbing Flippa, and Flippa just grins back to the code before being taken out towards the observation area again.

“You’re in big trouble.” Mariana grumbles.

‘Don’t regret anything. My point was proven.’ Flippa signs with a grin as she is dragged back.

When they get back into the room, it is dead quiet.

“Uh…what happened?” Mariana looks confused.

“Check your communicator.” Phil simply says,

Mariana checks, and now gets it so completely now. She feels her heart drop.

Bobby is bleeding, Bobby was slain by a Vindicator

Bobby was slain by a Vindicator

“That…was Bobby’s second life, right?” Mariana asks, fearing the worst.

Cellbit nods.

“Mierda….Watch Juanaflippa for me, i’m going to find Roier.”

And Mariana is out the door.

Chapter Text

The energy shifted very quickly, Charlie noticed. Something was different. Some sort of dread took over the island like a dark storm and he could sense it. He really wants to know what, but it would only cause suspicion on why their captured code wants to know. Plus he kinda refuses to talk to anyone but Flippa right now so thats two very conflicting situations he’s in.

They started feeding him more after Flippa came to visit. Started giving him more than the standard human meal when he is clearly not human. He assumes he has to thank Flippa for that. But, she hasn’t been in there since the time she broke in herself. Nobody really has. Other than people bringing him his meal it seems operations at The Order have stopped momentarily other than the cycling of people watching and feeding him. The only two that have stopped being in the cycle were Mariana and Roier weirdly enough.

Currently he was trying to get some sleep in, hoping maybe he can spend some of this time where he can do exactly nothing up in Molympus while his mortal body laid sleeping in the box. Well, he wanted to originally. But there was a surprise Flippa visit.

He knows it's night out, and Flippa should be sleeping, so he tilts his head a little, “5h0uldn’t y0u b3 5l33p1ng?” He asks.

Flippa shakes her head, signing ‘Only time I can get here. Nobody is watching you right now.’

“W0n’t M4r14n4 b3 w0rr13d?”

‘Papa hasn’t been home much recently. Been spending time with Tio Roier after Bobby died.’

Ah. That’s it. That's what made the energy across the island so solemn. 

“B0bby d13d?” He asks, a bit nervously.

Flippa nods, before signing, ‘yeah guess you wouldn’t have been made aware of it. Tio Phil has been watching me these last couple days and currently he is with everyone else trying to get Bobby back since there was a chance.’

Charlie nods, “1 h0p3 1t w0rk5…w0uld l0v3 t0 d0 wh@t 1 d1d t0 g3t y0u b4ck @g41n, Fl1pp4, but d0n’t 3xactly h4v3 4nyth1ng 3l53 t0 54cr1f1c3.”

Flippa shakes her head, ‘please don’t do anything like that again I don’t want to lose you.’

“W3ll 0n th3 br1ght 51d3 c4n’t d0 5h1t 1n th15 b0x.” Charlie chuckles, to which Flippa glares back at him causing him to go quiet. He can see tears building up in her eyes, ‘Really don’t want to lose more people I care about right now.’

“0h..Fl1pp@..” Charlie frowns, and goes over to try and comfort her, at least leaning on the glass walls of his containment.

Flippa pushes herself back against it.  Before scratching at the glass looking very frustrated. ‘Stupid box!’ she signs angrily.

“m@yb3 1’ll b3 l3t 0ut 500n…” Charlie tries, not liking seeing his little hueva this upset.

‘They really don’t trust you. There's already a predecided grudge against you across the whole island…’ Flippa looks defeated.

“W3ll…Gu355 1 d1d 5t@lk y0u @nd y0ur m0th3r f0r 4 wh1l3…” Charlie sighs, “gu355 th15 15 my 0wn m15t4k3…”

Flippa shakes her head, ‘you were protecting us!’

“Th3y d0n’t 533 1t th4t w@y” Charlie chuckles grimly.

‘And thats why i’m upset! They don’t see you as good they only see their past with the codes. I understand…but still….that doesn’t mean you deserve the treatment the bad ones should get.’ Flippa signs, clearly upset at everything happening right now, ‘I just want my family together again not separated…’

Charlie feels his heat drop a little, “1’m 50rry, Fl1pp@. G3nu1n3ly.”

Flippa wipes the tears from her eyes, ‘It’s not your fault, Dad.’

Charlie sits there, before speaking again, “1’m g01ng t0 w0rk w1th th3m n0w. 50 1 c4n b3 fr33, @nd h0p3fully 3v3n 1f 1t w45 l1k3 th3 t1m3 4ft3r y0ur b1rthd4y w3 c4n v151t @nd b3 h4ppy 4nd 1 w0n’t b3 s33n 45 @ thr34t. 1 pr0m153 y0u th@t.”

‘You going to tell them stuff about codes?’ Flippa looks at him

“T0 b3 f@1r 1’ll t3ll th3m wh4t 1 kn0w. 4b50lut3ly n0th1ng.” Charlie answers.

‘At least you’re honest’ Flippa giggles.

“L1t3r4lly p1ck3d th3 w0r5t c0d3 t0 1nt3r0g4t3.”

They sit there, until the sound of a door slamming hits Charlie’s ears and he can hear the panicked yells of Mariana who clearly just found out she was missing.

“Th3y’r3 h3r3.” Charlie chuckles, to which Flippa eyes widen and she tries to hide. 

Turns out that was useless as Mariana comes storming in and grabs her, and clutches her close to her chest, almost squeezing the life out of her.

“no lo vuelvas a hacer!” (don’t do that again!) Mariana yells and clutches Flippa who is trying to wiggle out of Mariana’s death hug. 

Mariana’s eyes land on him, and she immediately tries to shove Flippa out the door.

“H3y.” Charlie greets lamely.

“...Oh so now you talk.” Mariana spits back. 

He chuckles awkwardly, “...h0w5 1t g01ng?’ clearly clamming up and going into an autopilot of sorts around Mariana.

The human just gives him a blank look….”You really asking me this stuff? Right now?”

Flippa looks up and Mariana and nervously signs ‘is Bobby okay?’

Mariana looks down at her, and sighs sadly, setting her down and kneeling in front of her, “Lo siento. Fue denegado.” (i’m sorry. It was denied.)

Flippa tears up and clings to Mariana, who immediately picks her up gently, “Nos vamos a casa” (We’re going home) Mariana quietly assures, and rubs Flippa’s back comfortingly.

Mariana then turns to Charlie, and gaze hardening again, “we’ll be back tomorrow to interrogate now you are talking. Be ready for that.” Before turning around and walking out the door.

Flippa looking up to give him a sad smile and a little wave before the two disappear out the door once again leaving Charlie alone.

Well. This is it. He’ll give it his all, he’ll tell them the truth. Well…most of the truth. He won’t give up his true identity yet. After all, he doesn’t know if there will be consequences if he does or not. Better safe than sorry, and he’d rather not want to leave back to Molympus for good this early on. Especially since he has a mortal family down here.

Chapter Text

Mariana honestly was tired after all of that. Helping Roier and Jaiden to end up it all being for nothing with Bobby, worrying about Slime wherever he is, and even going back to find Juana is missing and she was in the room with the code.

It spoke for once. Which was progress since all they got before that was growls and scratching. After that as she walked home with Juana in arms she messages Cellbit who can get the information out.

You whisper to Cellbit> the code finally spoke. We can probably start the interrogations tomorrow

Cellbit whispers to you> good. Assuming it was the food thing then.

When he got back, he opens the door to his house, holding the now sleeping Juana carefully as he walks up the stairs to tuck her in her own bed.

She takes off her glasses carefully and sets them aside, before gently kissing her cheek and leaving Juana to sleep through the night.

Once downstairs exhaustion sets in like a heavy blanket though. He yawns, and sets aside his packed items from the journey before going to change and get into bed.

The bed is more comfy than usual. She just assumes it’s from the hard day though and snuggles in. Her eyes close in seconds.

When she opens them again she is for sure not in the bed. She’s…standing? In the center of an enchanted forest, thick dark oaks stand like giants around her and large mushrooms sprout from the ground like canopies.

It’s.. a dream. It has to be. Mariana pinches himself, expecting nothing, but is faced with the stinging of actual pain.

Okay what the fuck this is real then?

“Hola?” She calls out nervously, “dónde estoy?” (Where am i?)

Nothing answers though, just a howl of the wind.

He starts to walk, looking around nervously. He reaches back to see if she can feel the familiar worn handle of her axe, but is faced with nothing.

Okay. No weapon. Hopefully it is not needed here.

She continues to walk, staring out between the trees expecting something to be out there, but the area is weirdly alone. No life other than her in sight. It feels unnatural and ominous in a way. The path twists and turns, going around trees and mushrooms and small ponds of water as it leads the way.

The path ends at a strange door.

“Okay…unsure if I trust that…” Mariana comments out loud.

A squelch sounds from beside her, as she jumps back letting out a yelp of shock.

It’s a small slime, one similar to the ones Charlie constantly had around him. He always called them his little gunkers, goopers, slimers, and sometimes even chat weirdly enough. He just assumes it's a US thing though.

The little slime just stares up at her.

“Hola?” She greets surprised, “You’re the first being in here i’ve seen other than me.”

The slime chirrups at her, before hopping out to the strange door. It turns to him waiting.

“You…want me to go in?” She walks closer to the door.

The slime makes a clicking noise in response and hops closer to the door.

“Okay fine.” Mariana sighs, and goes to the door.

The slime immediately tries to climb her foot, to which she picks up the small slime and sets it on his head like he’s seen Charlie do with his little slimes.

The tiny slime immediately relaxes, and snuggles into his hair.

Honestly, after that she can see why Charlie likes having them around.

The door opens to a warmly lit hall. Comfortable looking chairs set up, and an opened book set on a desk. Mariana goes to the book and reads what is written

Library of Knowledge

Dear Traveler, welcome to the Library of Knowledge!

Here you will find books of all kinds, written on all the subjects you can imagine.

The books you seek will catch your eye and call out to you. However, do not touch the books you don’t need. They will not respond to your touch and in some cases burn your skin.

We welcome you and hope you enjoy your stay, -C

“Library of knowledge…” Mariana mutters to himself as he reads over the book.

Mariana turns around to gauge her surroundings, but finds the entrance is gone now.

“Well. Looks like no escape until I go through the library…” Mariana sighs, “At least I can get something out of this.”

Walking down the halls, the walls suddenly spread out and the room opens into an expansive library, almost a tower of babel, a library of Alexandria, with how large and expansive it is. Books line the walls, and mazes of shelves fill the room. Multi-segmented ladders with rollers allow access to the endless levels. And torches glowing with golden light encompass the room with a warm welcoming glow. Almost calming against the eldritch library she is trapped in.

“This is entirely way too much.” Mariana groans.

The slime chirps in response.

“Oh I wish I had Charlie here I don’t understand you, little slime, lo siento.” Mariana apologizes.

Mariana guesses she has to go with her gut, as she starts to go towards one of the ladders to start to climb.

She climbs, and climbs, until something deep inside her tells her to stop.

He is well above the floor now, and a single step could send her tumbling, so all he can hope is that whoever that C is takes well care of this place.

Walking along the walls, examining the books, she looks at all the titles. All seemingly gibberish in nothing a mortal could comprehend.

It’s when he reaches one everything in him forces him to stop as he stares at this dark forest green book. She reaches out, touching the ancient spine of the book, and finding it tingles almost in his hands. A welcoming tingle, one that makes part of him need to hold it more.

Mariana holds the book in his hands, running his hand on the coarse material.

“I see you have found what you are searching for.” A voice comments, almost fondly.

Mariana turns to face whoever spoke, to see a tall figure in a green cloak with a heart latch and a heart each engraved on shoulder plates accenting the figure. The cloak hood is up, and it seems a dark gray veil covers the face of the entity. Two vibrant glowing green eyes pierce the fabric however.

The figure floats, wings of slime extended from back but do not seem to be needed for use of flying.

“May I see?”

A gloved hand is held out, clearly built to cover clawed hands. Where the glove ends he can see barely in the shadows of the cloak green glowing enchantment runes spiraling up arms.

“Uh..” Mariana hesitates, and clutches the book closer. Not exactly sure if he can trust this figure.

As if the figure can hear what she’s thinking, his shoulders slump a bit, and the wings vanish. He grabs the railing and vaults over and lands in front of her. “You don’t trust me.” they state.

Mariana feels guilt, “It’s not that I don’t trust…I just don’t know who you are.”

The figure studies him, glowing green piercing down at him. Mariana, who is considered rather tall, is not used to this feeling. Makes him a bit squeamish.

“If I were to tell you who I am will you trust me?”

Mariana is caught off guard by this, “If you don’t prove yourself to be bad then sure.”

“I’ll take it. I run this library, it is part of my domain outside of Fate. It’s..a nice way to give people the knowledge they need without the startling of the visit of myself. I am the fabric that keeps the universes tied together by a string of my design, I have helped build everything you know of. I am one of the original 4. I am Magic, and you may call me C.”

Mariana’s eyes widen as he realizes he is face to face with a god. He immediately bows, to which the god groans, “And this is why I don’t like to be open about this. Stand.”

Mariana gets up instantly.

They stand there awkwardly, before the god  speaks again. “..can I see the book now?”

Mariana startles into action, “Oh! Yes! Sorry.” and apologizes.

The god hums a little, eyes scanning the pages, before looking up again, “Can you remind me of what you seek?”

“Oh. Uh….Guess my husband.” Mariana answers.

The God’s gaze softens at that, “Now I can only say this once, so listen closely.” Magic starts.

Mariana nods quickly.

“The one you seek, who you love so dearly, is closer than you think. Time will reveal itself. Hardships will occur, but if you power through then you will come out the victor..” Magic shuts the book, “Thank you Life once again for lending your knowledge to me.:”

Mariana blinks. Closer than she thinks? What does that mean?

The god chuckles “Nobody is able to comprehend their fates until they have occurred so don’t waste your breath trying to piece it together.”

“..is there any other information you can offer?” Mariana asks hopefully.

The god however shakes his head, “too late for any of that now.” and spreads his wings once again starting to float up, “you need to wake up now, Mariana.”

Mariana shakes her head, “Hey what does that mean?” She calls out.

But the god is gone, and the last thing she hears is wake up.

Before she jolts awake, sitting up in her bed and panting.

6 am.

Was…that all a dream? Mariana reaches up, and touches where the Slime was. She finds there is physically no slime there, but the area feels cold to touch like something of a naturally colder temperature sat up there.

What the fuck was that?

Mariana has no clue, now she can’t sleep with these thoughts, so guess it’s time to get up.

Time to face the day. 

Chapter Text

Charlie knows he shouldn’t have done that dream. He’s only supposed to enter dreams like that when required by some sort of divine purpose, not on a whim to give some sort of assurance to Mariana. He can already hear his brothers tiredly explaining to him for the who knows what at this point time not to interfere with mortals. He really doesn’t care that much though. They know damn well he isn’t going to listen either. It’s why they let him take a new mortal vessel for the time being. He can do his divine work when his mortal body is sleeping; he isn't neglecting his duties at all!

In fact while trapped in this box he’s been mostly sleeping since that's all he can do, and with that he’s been doing a lot of improvements to the magic systems he created, and has been working to prepare the harvest this year to ensure the food across the universes is plentiful!

Charlie sits in his little pocket dimension home connected to Molympus, looking over some of the work his demigods did when he becomes distantly aware of a weird poking. Wondering what it is, he quickly returns to his mortal body, causing it to jolt awake.

Opening his eyes he comes face to face with Cellbit, leaning half way into the box with a stick, poking him. He growls at the Brazilian, who immediately is pulling back out and closing the door before Charlie can even do anything.

“Why were you poking it again?” Charlie’s attention gets turned to Phil who stands at the other side looking at both Cellbit and him, Mariana also there but seemingly focused on his communicator.

“I thought it was dead!” Cellbit defends himself, “You saw how it wasn’t responding to anything.”

“It’s a very deep sleeper then.” Mariana concludes, before setting his communicator aside and walking over to the glass. “As I said the other day we’re going to interrogate you today. Are you ready?”

Charlie grumbles, before responding with a simple, “1 gu355.”

The speaking however causes both Phil and Cellbit to immediately look up in shock.

“So it can speak. Interesting.” Cellbit comments, before noting something down in a book.

“I wasn’t lying about it.” Mariana sighs, “Let's get this over with. I still need to do tasks with Juana.”

“Alright. Why do you follow and attack the eggs?” Cellbit starts.

Charlie stays quiet, staring at Cellbit.

They stay like that for a minute until Phil breaks the silence with “is..it not gonna answer? It did earlier. Why aren’t you talking now?”

Charlie changes his gaze to Phil, staring at the Crow hybrid, who ends up sighing, “Guess i’m not someone it will respond to either.”

“Are..you only gonna respond to me?” Mariana asks, looking at the others with him and the code.

“Y35.” Comes the simple reply from the code. 

“Why-” Cellbit looks confused and annoyed by that response, but Phil cuts him off, “We’ll take what we can get. If it only wants to talk to Mariana it will only talk to her. Mariana’s the one with the most questions for it after all, it’s been following him this whole time.”

“Why only me?” Mariana questions.

“1 0nly tru5t y0u.” Charlie answers.

Mariana sighs, “Alright. Why are you following Juana and I?”

Charlie hesitates, he can’t say it's because they are his family, so he concludes, “T0 pr0t3ct.”

“Why are you protecting us? We can handle ourselves,” Mariana pushes.

“1……f1nd y0u…f4c1n@t1ng 1 gu355?” Charlie responds. Which is….true. The reason he does live among the mortals is he finds them fascinating. “W0rld d@ng3r0u5. Hum4n5 4nd 3gg5 fr@g1l3. 1 pr0t3ct.”

“So…you don’t want to kill us and the eggs?” Cellbit concludes.

Charlie once again just stares at Cellbit.

Mariana gives Cellbit a nod, “So…you don’t want to kill us and the eggs?”

Charlie chuckles, “0nly f3w c0d35 @tt4ck. 1 w1ll n0t. Y0u h4v3 533n th4t y0ur53lf.”

They huddle up together for a second, Charlie watching them boredly, until they step out of the huddle, “Do you know why they attack?” Mariana asks.

“Hung3r 1 5upp053?” Charlie answers, he doesn’t have a clue.

“And you are susceptible to that hunger too, right?” Mariana concludes.

“5ur3. But 1 0nly hunt w1ld 4n1m4l5.” Charlie answers truthfully. “W0uld n3v3r h4rm 4n 3gg.”

“If we were to give you a chicken egg for the time being, would you take care not to break it to prove that?” Phil asks.

Charlie stares, are they really asking him to take care of a chicken egg to prove he won’t eat the eggs?

Mariana is about to ask the question again, when Charlie cuts her off, “5ur3 1’ll t4k3 th@t 0ff3r. @5 l0ng 45 1t c4n 3n5ur3 tru5t 4nd h0p3fully g3t m3 o0ut 0f h3r3 500n3r.”

“It will.” Cellbit adds, “if you can prove you are no harm to us we will let you free but with some supervision for a while.”

Charlie nods, laying down. He lays there, before asking “15 th3r3 4ny ch4nc3 y0u c0uld…br1ng m3 l1k3…4nyth1ng t0 d0 1n h3r3? 0r @t l345t 50m3 bl4nk3t5 4nd p1ll0w5? Th3r3 15 n0th1ng 1 c4n d0 1n h3r3 3xc3pt 5l33p. 1t’5 t0rtur3.”

“I’ll see what I can do. We’ll bring some stuff when we get that chicken egg.” Cellbit assures.

“Th4nk5” Charlie thanks them.

Mariana grabs out a steak from his inventory and opens the food hatch, tossing it in, “Thank you for answering. We’ll be back later to get you what you need and the egg.”

Charlie instantly goes to eat the food as the group leaves the room, leaving him alone once again in his empty glass box surrounded by cameras. He lays down once again to nap, but more of a needed mortal nap then a forced nap to get god work done.

When he wakes up, it’s to the sound of a door opening. Charlie looks up to see Mariana and Flippa walking in with some items.

Flippa gives him a wave as she follows her papa in with her arms full of blankets and pillows.

“We got you what you wanted.” Mariana calls out. “I offered to help with the blankets and pillows because I had quite a few spare. And we are unsure what you wanted for stuff to do…but I did take atablet from Roier we can put something on for you to watch. He doesn’t use this thing anyways so it’ll be fine. I can…tape it to the wall or something.” Mariana concludes, setting down what Charlie assumes is the tablet and a box which he assumes has the chicken egg inside.

She climbs up to the top of the box, opening the hatch before calling down to Flippa, “Juana, puedes subirme las mantas y las almohadas?” (Juana, can you toss the blankets and pillows up to me?)

Flippa nods, tossing with her all the blankets and pillows up, Mariana catching them and tossing them down the latch.

When they are done, Mariana looks over the haul tossed in, and nods, “should be enough.” before locking the hatch again and jumping down.

Next Mariana grabs the tablet, and turns to Juana, “Dijiste que podrías conocer algunos vídeos que podrían gustarle?” (You said you might know some videos he might like?)

Flippa nods, grabbing the tablet and typing something in, before starting it.

“Que?” Mariana looks confused at what it is, but Flippa grins and holds up the tablet.

Charlie looks at what she is showing and his eyes widen at screen as he immediately just focuses on the beeping noises and the lines slowly lining up to make a perfect slope. 

Flippa pauses it and gives Mariana a told you so look.

“Codes like sorting algorithms. Noted.” Mariana sighs.

Flippa nods, and hands the tablet back, before signing, ‘we can control the tablet using dad’s old communicator. If you are fine with it. I’m sure he would be fine with it.’ and she gives a glance to Charlie in the box, who just nods.

He can’t exactly use that thing as a code, so might as well put it to good use.

“We’ll get this thing set up and ready for use by tomorrow. Just thought i’d show you we had this. Anyways as part of our deal, here.” Mariana takes the egg out of the box, and carefully passes it over through the food latch.

Charlie nods, showing he’s being careful as he lightly picks up the egg in his mouth and lays down on the blankets and pillows, setting the egg carefully between his paws.

“Th4nk y0u. 1 pr0m153 1’ll d0 my b35t.” Charlie thanks Mariana.

Mariana nods, “it’ll be in your best interest. Juanaflippa trusts you. I’m..not sure if i can too yet. But this will be the first step in figuring that out.” Mariana responds honestly, “But you have shown you are ready to protect us in the past. I have hope you can do it.”

Charlie nods, “1’ll g1v3 1t my 4ll.”

“That’s all we can hope for.” Mariana nods, putting the tablet in his backpack, before calling out, “Juana, vamos.” and going out the door, holding it open for Flippa, who looks over, gives him a  smile and a small signed ‘you can do this dad’ before following Mariana out. 

Chapter Text

The days drag on slowly much to Charlie’s dismay. He’s in a better more comfortable area now, which he is very thankful for. The blankets and pillows made a wonderful nest he could lay down in and feel both comfortable and protected. He remembers when he was making it, Phil rushed in observing quietly as he adjusted the pillows and blankets around making a soft plush nest he could lay in. He could assume it was something with the hybrid’s crow instincts. He honestly feels a little big judged as he padded down the blankets and pillows making up the bottom. 

The day after, Roier actually showed for the first time since Bobby’s passing. Charlie feels a bit awkward, seeing as he would love to show his sympathy and apologize for not being able to bring Bobby back as well, but he’s sure Roier doesn’t want any sympathy from a code, and him mentioning it being him who brought the eggs back…well that would bring up some questions. Questions he’s honestly not to keen on experiencing the aftermath of as of this moment. They are all doing better with him as Charlie not being around anyways. 

“es esa mi tableta?” (Is that my tablet?) Roier asks immediately from the door as Mariana is getting the tablet attached to the glass.

“No lo estabas usando. Te conseguiré uno nuevo si quieres.” (You weren't using it. I'll get you a new one if you want.) Mariana replies, before tugging at it a couple times, seemingly satisfied with her work as the tablet stays fixated to the glass. 

“está bien.” (it’s fine) Roier shrugs, walking into the room staring at the code in the box curiously.

Charlie stares back, wondering what Roier is thinking.

Mariana walks around to the food slot, “Can I see the egg?”

Charlie gets up carefully, and goes over to roll the egg to the food slot. Mariana reaches down and picks up the egg, examining it for any signs of cracking, before nodding and placing the egg softly back into the box, to which Charlie carefully rolls it back to it’s safe spot in his nest.

“Entonces... hace que el código vigile un huevo de gallina para demostrar que no hace daño?” (So... you are having the code keep an eye on a chicken egg to prove it means no harm?) Roier looks confused.

“si puede mantener a salvo un huevo de gallina, puede mantener a salvo nuestros huevos” (if it can keep a chicken egg safe, it can keep our eggs safe) Mariana confirms.

“...por qué necesita mi tablet?” (why does it need my tablet?) Roier asks 

“B0r3d.” Charlie finally inserts himself into the conversation.

Roier’s eyes widen, before turning to Mariana, whispering, “volvió a hablar” (It spoke again)

Mariana sighs, “Te dije que lo interogamos.” (I told you we interrogated it)

Roier sighs, before turning to Charlie. “Why did you attack me?”

Charlie stares, “..y0u 4tt4ck3d m3 f1r5t.”

“You were walking around Mariana’s place growling! How would I not take that as aggressive?” Roier exclaims.

“R0ugh d4y. 4nd 1 r4n y0u 1n1t14t3d th3 b4ttl3.” Charlie retorts.

Roier raises an eyebrow at that, “Rough day? Pendejo what does that even mean?”

Charlie growls in response, to which Roier moves to grab a weapon and Mariana puts himself between the two.

First turning to the code, “No growling. You are trapped here and we could kill you any time.” before turning to Roier, “And please stop provoking it, Roier.”

“I just want to know why it attacked me!” Roier looks at Mariana hoping his friend will understand.

“You were chasing a code to be fair. It would attack back if feeling threatened as most would.” Mariana sighs.

Roier frowns at that, but nods, “De acuerdo. Estaré en la sala de cámaras cuando termines lo que tengas que hacer aquí” (Fine. I’ll be in the camera room when you finish what you need to here.)

Roier leaves, leaving Mariana and Charlie alone in the room.

“...wh4t5 h15 pr0bl3m?” Charlie huffs.

Mariana shakes her head, “He has a reason. You did almost kill him, and you are pretty dangerous and your kind are known for killing eggs, which at the time he was watching Juana.”

Charlie goes quiet, before speaking again, “1 n3v3r m34nt t0. 1 4p0l0g1z3d.”

“It was self defense, no? Anyone would attack back to preserve their own life. It’s instinctual.” Mariana shrugs. “Anyways I can’t be in here all day, so here.” Mariana reaches in his bag tossing a couple pieces of raw meat through the food hole, before pulling out Charlie’s old communicator, tapping a few buttons until the screen of the tablet fires up and Charlie’s attention is once again brought to the sorting algorithms.

He doesn’t notice Mariana leave after, eating his meal while watching videos of a computer sort lines. 

And he watches until the tablet runs out of battery, and that's when he finally goes to bed.

Next day was strange. He heard there were some new islanders that crashed down a week ago, but wasn’t expecting to wake up to hearing unfamiliar voices chatting. Takes him way too long to recognize the language as French as he sees two faces pressed up against the glass curiously while two other figures watch from the side. 

The one closest to him…he can’t really tell what kind of humanoid they are, but the green skin, and blue eyes behind a mask, he grins excitedly when he notices the code’s attention is on him.

“You said they are dangerous and pretty strong, ouais?” The person asks.

“The codes are pretty strong, yes.” Cellbit responds, Charlie only now noticing the Cat hybrid as he tosses in something for him to eat. “Why?”

The green person grins, “I would like to fight it then!” 

Charlie immediately backs up at that, unsure on how to feel with this stranger suddenly proclaiming a fight.

The other person who was pressed up against the glass, Charlie, recognizing as a Duck hybrid with a colorful propeller hat, sighs, “Look Etoiles you’re scaring it!”

“I…am unsure if I want you harming the closest we have to an informant on the codes.” Cellbit adds.

Etoiles immediately backs up a little, “Non! I don’t mean anything bad. A friendly fight! No injury. First one who gets a good strike on the other wins and would only happen when it would work!”

“Not that. I don’t think it even likes the concept of a battle.” The duck hybrid responds.

“I think Baghera’s right. But perhaps in the future if it does agree to later it might be an interesting watch.” Cellbit nods.

Charlie looks away from the two at the glass, and looks at the two figures in the back. A human with a blue shirt and what looks to be some inventions on him, and…another strange humanoid. It’s a figure wearing a brown cloak and a paper bag with a smile drawn on the face. Charlie tilt’s his head a little at the figure curiously, the figure waving back at him.

Baghera hums, before saying, “I don’t know why yet, but I like you.” she proclaims, “Something about you fascinates me.”

Charlie stares back. Weirdly, he feels the same. Maybe she is a worshipper of Magic of some kind and feels a connection because of that, or they are intertwined by some weird fate. Either way, something nags in his brain that if he got the chance to know her better, or what is some other universe, perhaps they would have hit it off and became the best of friends in a snap of a finger.

The new members leave just as quickly as they came, leaving Charlie and Cellbit in the room.

Cellbit stares at him curiously, “..are you going to eat?”

Charlie snaps out of looking at the door, glancing down at the meat at his feet. He quickly picks the meat up, and goes into his nest to rip into the food he was given, Cellbit walking around, taking notes, and saying, “The egg is still uncracked.” He sounds surprised, “Perhaps we could start discussing more about your containment by the end of the week if it stays that way.” Cellbit pockets the notebook. He waves, before leaving out the door.

Charlie grins to himself, burning his face more in his nest to finish his meal.

Finally, maybe he can get out of this box.

Chapter Text

The island has always been infused with the divine. Some ancient power that dug itself into the dirt of this island.

Partially that's why Condi decides he will take a visit to the island. That, and he was curious to what kind of mortal life Charlie was trying to live before making that deal. When he lands on the ground of Eggxile, he dissipates the obsidian black dragon wings he formed to fly, cloak fluttering a bit as his form changes to accommodate. He took his mortal form, since in case anyone decides to explore this little side island at the same time as him it might be startling to see the God of Realms standing before them. All they would see is some sort of black horned almost elven looking humanoid with a scythe in hand.

“Honestly I wonder if Charlie made this place himself or this was naturally formed here by the universe.” Condi ponders out loud, looking across the white and pink sands, across the ocean to the arches of stone covered in moss and sea vegetation. “Stunning choice, even if it was for a home made for isolation.” He walks along the shore line, eyes landing on four chairs set in front of a bonfire. Condi’s expression sombers. Was he planning guests here? Perhaps this was meant to be shared after a while.

His eyes trail towards the house, and Condi walks over to the rotting cabin, opening the door and seeing the state it was in.

“Shit….expected better effort from you honestly.” Condi huffs, but shakes his head, guess he was dealing with the guilt and grief of death. Probably did not have the energy to build anything else.

Condi pushes forward towards the mine set up. Stone steps leading down, as an outcropping of cobble and smooth stone embraces the entrance. The air smells weird as he walks down the steps, looking at the pickaxe broken walls of the mine, and frowns when it abruptly ends. It seems Charlie never got that far with mining. He goes back up, breathing deeply as fresh air enters his lungs again, his head feeling a bit dizzy from what was down there.

And Finally, he looks directly at what he was trying to avoid until the last second. A monolith of a shrine, infused with some of Charlie’s own magic, to what he assumes to help summon who he built this for. Leaves cover the top providing shelter to those who enter, moss, azalea, and vines drop down upon the quartz temple. In the center stands a pool of water, and a strange pillar, with Charlies own magic runes engraved into the center, pulsing with the power that his fellow god poured into this place.

However even with how potent Charlie’s magic is to this, Condi feels another type of magic made it’s mark in this temple, and when Condi feels eyes on him, he turns around to see a floating white bear with a glowing golden halo staring at him curiously.

“Qué hace un dios aquí en mis dominios, uno como la muerte misma, sin embargo?” (What is a god doing here in my domain, one such as death himself nonetheless?) The entity speaks.

Condi’s eyes narrow, “Who are you?”

“Soy algo más que un semidiós. Eso es todo, El Reino.” (I am something a bit more than a demigod. that's all, Realm.)

Condi’s stares at the entity, before asking, “What business did the man who built this have with you?”

“El limo? Sólo quería hacer un trato para revertir algunas muertes injustas. Mi contraparte hizo el resto.” (The slime? Just wanted to make a deal in order to get some unfair deaths reversed. My counterpart did the rest.) The entity responds. “qué negocios tienes aquí?” (What business do you have here?)

“I am just investigating that's all. Thank you for your answers.” Condi nods.

The Entity hums, before giving a final word, “si buscas respuestas acude al campeón de uno de tus subordinados. El Ángel de la Muerte.” (if you seek answers go to the champion of one of your underlings. The Angel of Death.) before vanishing.

Condi really didn’t want to interfere with the players that make up the island. If Charlie sees him it might end up a bit more awkward then it should be too. But he wants to find out why Charlie is so invested in this place. So he sighs, forms the wings again, before taking off into the sky to locate where The Angel of Death resides.

The land changes as he flies over it all, watching seas with boats sailing across, to deserts, to savannahs, to plains. He stops when he reaches the wall he senses many energies from.

A fading presence of potent magic, and a more present sense of death magic from the top. At the top sits a farm, a green house, and a house. Landing on the stone he once again dissipates his wings and moves forward, knocking at the door.

What opens the door is a little dragon egg with a skull mask staring up at him curiously.

He recognizes Chayanne, the little egg who is parented by two of the islanders who have some connection to him. “Hey Chayanne, can you get your dad?” He greets the egg.

The egg stares at him curiously and confused, before nodding and running off. Another egg with a beanie and black hair walks over after seeing her brother run off, this must be Tallulah.

“Chayanne I’m coming!” Phil lightly scolds as Chayanne intently pulls Phil towards the door.

When the crow looks over however, his expression changes to concern and slight fear as he recognizes who stands at the door. He immediately turns to the eggs, and says, “Can you two go downstairs for a minute? I’ll properly introduce you to this man after but…this is very important business for me right now.”

The two eggs share a look, before they nod and leave the room.

After they are for sure gone, Condi breaks the terse silence, “Good eggs. They’ll grow up strong i’m sure.” 

Phil nods, before sighing, “Why are you here? Not often does someone get an elder god, and the boss of your wife at your door.”

Condi chuckles nervously, “Sorry if I startled you. I’m just…doing a bit of research. What do you know about Slimecicle?”

Phil looks confused by that “Charlie? Well…he’s…he’s dead right? Can’t you get this information yourself?” before the crow thinks of something, and his wings flap a little, “Unless he’s actually alive still. Is he alive?” He seems a bit excited yet concerned about this information.

Condi backpedals, “Can’t say. I just want to know about your relationship with him and what you know about him. And you can’t tell anyone of this encounter.”

“Well…he….is..or was. A good friend. We built our original houses close. His old place is directly below mine. But then tragedy hit and well…he’s also very self sacrificial as it turns out.”

Condi nods, knowing damn well what Phil was talking about.

“And well…he got all of the at the time dead eggs back and went missing. I ended up finding the note he left when his own now revived kid came up to me for help.” Phil explains

“Hm. And I wonder why he stayed on the island after all of that.” Condi ponders out loud.

“Well. We can’t exactly escape,” Phil starts, “And..he’s a people person. He thrives around others. He punishes himself by pushing others away.”

Condi sighs, knowing he can’t get any more explanation for this without exposing Charlie’s true identity. “Thank you for this information, it’s appreciated. I..think i’m going to stay a little bit longer. Away from mortals and such. Do you know of any places I could build something in?”

Phil nods, with a curious gleam to his eyes, “Of course. Let me show you. Perhaps I can be of assistance too if you want to know anything else.”

Condi just gives the champion a nod, “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Chapter Text

Charlie has no idea how long he’s been trapped. Hard to tell when you are trapped in a room for so long, only being able to gauge it's been a full day when it’s been three meals and the whole building dims when everyone else has left for the night to sleep. It’s draining to say the least. They feed him, gave him something comfy to sleep on, and something to watch…when it's charged at least. He by all means isn’t being tortured. But the monotonous drag of the days can be too much to say the least.

So when the day comes that most of the island comes into the room suddenly, and he hears the click of a door latch and the opening of the door, Charlie is just left there in shock at the sudden opening of the door.

“Alright. We will keep an eye on you, but you have proven you are careful and willing to protect the eggs. With that we will give you the trust to come out of there and help protect the eggs as you said you would.” Cellbit says.

“...Th4nk y0u. 1 w0n’t d4r3 br34k y0ur tru5t.” Charlie thanks the Brazilian before cautiously leaving the glass box he’s been in for so long, seeing all of the islanders grip lightly at their weapons at their sides but don’t move to pull them out.

Mariana approaches first, “We all had a meeting on who would keep an eye on you…and Juana begged for it to be us…and I just couldn’t say no..so you’ll be living with us then.”

Charlie’s eyes widened, before nodding quickly, “Th4t5 4lr1ght.”

Mariana nods, and enters the box to pack up the blankets and the pillows in the cage, “We will have you sleep…somewhere in the house until we get you something more permanent to sleep in.”

Charlie nods, watching as Mariana picks up all of the blankets and pillows and packs them away before nodding at the door, “This way. Juana is waiting for us outside.” 

And with that Charlie quickly follows behind Mariana.

It really is a wonder to breathe fresh air again after so long. Charlie quickly runs outside, past Juana, past others as he proceeds to run right into the grass and just flop over into it and roll around feeling the nature outside on him felt wonderful.

He hears snickering as he looks up to see his family, Flippa and Mariana, failing to suppress laughing at him.

“Vamos vamos, there is more nature out there to see outside of Favela!” Mariana urges, walking over to Charlie, and practically trying to get him to stand up.

Charlie stands up, practically knocking Mariana on her ass, and causing Flippa to start giggling once again. Charlie goes back there to carefully nudge her to go forward, as Mariana groans, getting up once again.

Charlie stands beside her along with Flippa, and Mariana just shoves him lightly in response, before moving along again to lead the way.

Flippa stays at Charlie’s side, happily following, and sometimes running up to Mariana to ask something. He can tell she is living her best life right now. She has both of her dads back and is able to have them both be around each other, although Mariana is not aware that he is his husband. And honestly Charlie is pretty happy himself. He can live with his family now without hiding and is no longer stuck in that horrible box. He really wishes nobody else ever has to go through what he did there.

They get to Mariana’s house rather quickly, the familiar walls he hid in for months after Flippa found out who he was and was able to get him to live there under her bed in secret.

When they get inside, Mariana turns to look at Charlie, “I’m going to set some ground rules right now. Uno. do not destroy anything in the house.”

Charlie sighs a little, not like he’s…well.. completely a wild animal. He guesses codes could be classified as such.

“Dos. You are not allowed in Juana’s room until we set up your little space in there…Juana insisted we set up your….nest as Phil called it in there with her.”

Charlie nods, that's understandable.

“Tres. you are not allowed to enter my room unless I give permission.”

Charlie frowns, but nods again, he would respect his wife’s privacy anyways.

“And cuatro, kitchen if off limits unless we are eating” Mariana concludes.

Charlie chuckles, “w45n’t g01ng t0 5t34l f00d.”

“Good. Then you don’t have a reason to be in there other than when we are all eating and will follow that rule.” Mariana nods, she grabs the bag of the bedding, and dumps it in the living room, “Set up however you want this will be your sleeping area while we get out how to do your sleeping area in Juana’s room. I’ll be in my room, Juana, if you need anything.” and with that Mariana leaves the two alone.

They both stand there, before Charlie starts to get to work on his nest.

Flippa watches, before signing, ‘Can I help?’

“5ur3.” Charlie smiles, and gives her a blanket, and Flippa grins, getting to work on padding it down to help form something comfortable for her dad to sleep in. When the work is done, Charlie proceeds to lay down on it again to completely finish it so it forms to his body. 

Flippa watches from the side smiling at how comfortable he looks.

“Hmmmm…n33d5 0n3 m0r3…” Charlie starts.

Flippa looks confused, ‘what?’

Charlie looks up at her and a sneaky grin takes to his face, “y0u!” and pulls her in with a paw, and snuggling her close to him. Flippa squeals excitedly, and cuddles up closer to him as well, feeling comforted in his grasp.

When Mariana comes out later, he sees the half asleep eyes of the code open, who looks up at her and makes a beeping sound in greeting, and a sleeping Juanaflippa curled up in it’s paws.

Mariana smiles at this scene, “i’ll be making dinner, Juana looks comfy you better not wake her while i'm cooking.” she threatens, although Charlie can tell jokingly.

“1 w0uld n3v3r.” Charlie responds.

A half an hour later, Mariana comes back, and carefully takes Flippa from him, waking the baby dragon up, “la cena está lista” (Dinner is ready) Mariana wakes Juana softly.

Juana nods, and slips out of Mariana’s hands and runs to the kitchen, Mariana after, and Charlie trailing behind fast.

When he gets into the kitchen he sees two meals set up at the table, something Charlie can’t exactly pin down but vegan of course.

And some meat placed on a plate on the ground.

Mariana looks at him, before pointing at the meat, “There.”

Charlie nods, moving forward towards the meat.

Honestly he’s getting a bit tired of meat at this point, but at least he’s getting fed so that's all he can hope for. Maybe he can snack on some berries in the woods if he’s out there with them for the day, or if he’s really desperate he can summon something to eat with his magic which he couldn’t use without exposing himself in the box when he was starving.

So now he’s out, maybe every once in a while he can summon his family a little treat when they aren’t there. They’ll probably assume someone on the island just dropped it off anyways most likely. That sounds nice.

He finishes his meal, and watches them finish theirs. When they are done Mariana and Flippa wash the dishes together, Juana having grabbed his to wash last and they set it aside on the table away from the other dishes after.

Flippa runs up to him after dishes are done, and signs excitedly, ‘Papa said we can go out in the backyard for a bit before bed!’ and she quickly runs out of the room.

Charlie, feeling that her excitement is contagious, stands up quickly and runs after her. When out, he does run around with her for a little bit, but after a while just proceeds to lay down in the center of the backyard, and roll over to stare up at the night sky. The ambient sound of Flippa on the swing attached to a tree, and Mariana on the steps reading a book in the soft amber light of lanterns lighting up the area. He finds himself zoning out a little as he stares out. At the stars that spiral around, all sorts of light, energy, and magic himself and his fellow gods imbued into the cosmos.

He wonders what his brothers are doing. He wonders how his demigods are doing under no advice from him as he hides in mortal worlds. He kinda feels bad, but there was something so fascinating about the world that he hasn’t been a part of since well….before this existence that everything knows of. None of them know what kind of torment the demon of the storm placed on every poor mortal in his domain, only knowing from the mythos.

“Es tarde. Deberíamos entrar ahora.” (It's late. We should go inside now) is what snaps Charlie out of his thoughts as Mariana calls that out.

Juana nods and runs over, stopping to wait for Charlie to get up.

Charlie stands up, feeling his feet once again on solid earth as he walks back to the house with Flippa, walking past Mariana, who shuts the door behind them when they are all inside.

Juana yawns, and leans up against Charlie.

“Ha sido un día largo. Ahora deberías dormir.” (Its been a long day. You should sleep now.) Mariana calls out, and lightly guides her up the stairs to bed. Charlie waits behind, not following as much as he would love to wish Flippa a good night’s rest.

It’s a while, before Mariana comes down the stairs again, yawning a little herself. When she gets down the stairs fully, she stares at him, before commenting, “You should get to bed too.”

Mariana walks to go to his room, only pausing to see that Charlie was following on instinct. He always would fall asleep with Mariana if he ever slept at her house after all.

Mariana’s eyes narrow, “remember our rules, si?”

Charlie’s eyes widen, as he nods, and backs off a little.

“Good. Goodnight.” and he shuts the door behind him.

Charlie sighs as he moves to go lay in his nest once again.

This is new, this is different, but it’s better than before and he will take what he can get. Charlie closes his eyes, and nods off to a peaceful sleep, hoping for the next day to come quickly. 

Chapter Text

Condi follows the champion as Phil leads the way, both Chayanne and Tallulah following as well, wanting to help with the choosing of the area for a house. Condi had to leave for a bit for god duties, but came back when he could now to get a house set up here for his mortal disguise.

“Safe to assume you want something that will blend in, right?” Phil asks.

“Yeah. I’m just a passive observer here, I am not going to interfere. Blending in and not being noticed would greatly help.” Condi answers.

Phil nods, “There's a rather unpopulated area near some shoreline over here where we could set up something like a lighthouse home for you.” He points at a cliff near the ocean in the distance. “Most would assume it's The Federation, and although The Federation might be curious about the new lighthouse, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“That works.” Condi affirms, “I can do that.” 

When they get to the area, Condi looks over the area, trying to figure out where would be the best place to put it, before sitting down, summoning a book and quill, and starting to do a rough sketch of what he thinks he would want to do. When content, he nods and summons the exact supplies he needs and gets to work.

“Did you want help or anything?” Phil suddenly asks.

“Uh. If you want to do some decorating of the outside, that would be great. I can handle the actual building.” Condi answers.

Tallulah lights up at that, quickly signing something to Phil, who nods, signing something back and starting to dig through his bags. 

Condi smiles to himself a little, and continues to work on the light house home he’ll be staying in when staying here. Building up the walls, red and white, and taking moments to stare out at the sea lapping against the shoreline. It’s peaceful. He never gets to do stuff like this, mostly spending his time in his realms or watching over the afterlife. He can admit, the life Charlie ran off to is alluring. And even with this Charlie is still able to do his duties, looking over what his demigods have done, and improving what he can in his own domains. He kinda wishes he was free to run off like this like Charlie did. However, he is aware the realm of the living is not a place for The God of Realms. The God of Death. So he’ll just take what he can before it gets too dangerous for him to be around anymore.

He reaches the top, walls built up to a great height that overlooks the rough seas. He summons his wings for a brief moment to glide down and reach the ground again. To his surprise there is a path of stones built out, and flowers and many plants carefully planted along the ground.

“Oh wow…” is all he can say as he marvels.

‘Do you like?’ It is little Tallulah, looking at him hopefully, with more flowers in her clawed hands.

“I love it.” Condi smiles at the baby dragon.

Tallulah smiles, and tail wags at the approval. Condi continues on, giving compliments to the work, “You have placed out everything perfectly, and matched flowers so they are eye-catching and stunning to look at. You really do have an eye for gardening.” He smiles.

‘Oh it wasn’t just me. Chay and Papa also helped!’ Tallulah signed

“She was the mastermind though.” Phil grins, “She deserves the praise.” Chayanne nods too

Condi nods, “Well thank you all anyways. I’m going to take a bit of a break and just sit watching the ocean if you would like to join, if not you are free to go.”

Phil shrugs, “We can stay a bit longer.”

They all sit by the cliff watching the sea, just soaking in the silence.

A tap at Condi’s arm snaps him out of his thoughts, and he turns around to see Tallulah looking at him.

“Yes, Tallulah?” He asks.

‘Papa said you were looking for Slimecicle?’

Condi hums, “Something like that, yes.”

Tallulah looks down at her hands, before signing, ‘I wish I could have met him. I’ve heard so much about him. Papa said he’s a troubled man who has gone through a lot and I would have liked to see if I could have done anything to help him.’

Condi frowns, “I’m sure he would have loved to meet you. I’m sure he would have loved you.”

Tallulah nods, ‘If he’s still out there and you find him, could you bring him to me so I can meet him?’

Condi hesitates, but nods, “Of course, Tallulah.”

‘Thank you’ and she looks out at the sea again.

Phil stands up, “We should probably head off. Chayanne, Tallulah, are you ready?”

Both eggs nod, Tallulah quickly hugs Condi before she follows her family.

“If you need anything just…honestly do whatever you need to. Do you have a communicator?” Phil asks.

“Nope but I can find you.” Condi assures, “Have a good rest of your day and thank you again for your help!”

Phil just waves as he teleports off.

Condi then gets up, brushing off dirt, and starts to do the inside.

When it is finished, the god sighs and collapses into a chair he set up inside. He doesn’t really need to sleep so no bed is necessary, but he just needs to sit for a moment after all the work he’s done to ensure he has a place to stay when mortal.

All he needs to do now, is watch the island and find out what attracted Charlie to it so much, without Charlie noticing he is there in the first place.

Chapter Text

Charlie needed to get out. He couldn’t handle being stuck inside for so long. He really only got to go out when Mariana and Flippa went somewhere, and sometimes they don’t let him come along. Mariana says it’s like…family stuff. Which is ironic. He sees how Flippa looks apologetic when Mariana uses that reasoning.

Charlie understands however, he is hiding who he is for a reason. He is freeing them from himself in some way, and made himself anew as a new entity on the island. And he is still slowly regaining the trust of others even though they freed him. And because he doesn’t have full trust they don’t want him being out without someone watching yet. So with his current plan, he understands it will probably cause some stress across the island. He however just needs to get out of this house.

So currently as of now, he managed to shred up some of the astroturf of the backyard to expose unreinforced dirt, and is now digging himself a small tunnel out of the backyard dome so he can have some outside time without being watched.

These code paws aren’t exactly good at digging, but they work decently he guesses, and the claws can break up the solid ground with ease. When he reaches the other side he shakes off any dirt that clings to him and immediately trots off into the woods around him.

He can feel himself relax as he soaks in the nature around him, watching the wildlife moving around. Rabbits, sheep, cattle, pigs, squirrels up in the trees and singing birds. He would believe it if this was a lot more overwhelming if he was able to communicate with the animals, but he isn’t Life, so he is blessed by the fact the amount of sounds just sound like ambient nature sounds rather than a cacophony of conversations. 

He can recognize Roier and Jaiden’s place as he stops nearby. Staring at the house, at the castle beside. He can see the lights are on inside, but there is no conversation. Not the life that was brought to this place when Bobby was still running around causing as much chaos as an egg can.

His ears flatten, feeling saddened by remembering the fact that he couldn’t bring Bobby back as well, he really wishes he could. So he continues on his way, padding along the grass as he travels further across the island. He passes many things, many houses, many biomes, he even sees a lighthouse he has never seen before. He continues on and on and on until he reaches snow. 

It’s cold.

Wow, fucking astute observation man, he thinks to himself as he trods on into the snow covered biome.

He kinda misses being able to wear warm shoes or boots in the snow, you can’t exactly fit those onto what he has now, but at least there is some sort of..fur?? Whatever the fuck he has going on. That keeps warm between the paw pads. And they have definitely calloused a bit more than when he was first turned from well…walking. So it’s really just mildly unpleasant and he doesn’t feel like he’s freezing his feet.

He hears a crunch, and quickly turns to face it, seeing a small white rabbit. And stomach be damned he immediately becomes aware of how hungry he is. And the more creature side of his mind sees the rabbit as a worthy snack. He immediately crouches down, focusing on the creature in front of him as he sneaks forward to get into pouncing distance, keeping light and as quiet on his feet in the snow as possible.

However it just takes one mistake, and some extra crunchy snow, and your presence is alerted.

The rabbit jolts up, turns one eye to him, and immediately starts hoping for its life.

He growls in frustration and he immediately takes off to chase it, keeping on the tail of the rabbit as it flees. He doesn’t know for how long he chases, using all of his concentration on focusing and trying to predict what the rabbit will do next, but it all pays off as he pounces, and manages to lock the rabbit under his paw, and poofs right into a large pile of snow from the weight of the jump. He bends down to grab the rabbit by the neck to shake it aggressively until its neck snaps and blood starts to drip down from his mouth to the snow from the clearly now dead rabbit.

“uh...Bonsoir?” (uh…Good evening?) a confused voice calls out startling him from his bloodlust, as he looks up to see a familiar french speaking Duck Hybrid looking over confused from a wall she is currently building up.

He makes a muffled beeping noise, and shakes off any snow that may have built up on him from his hunting, and he hears Baghera gasp before, “Oh! Hello! It’s you!” she greets, and proceeds to hop down from the wall, and make her way over. “What are you doing out here?”

He sits, setting down the rabbit, before answering, “ju5t w4lk1ng. 3xpl0r1ng.”

Baghera nods, before looking out at the night sky, “Should you be out here?”

“N0” Charlie answers sheepishly, “1 c4n d3f3nd my53lf w3ll h0w3v3r 4nd h4v3 b33n @v01d1ng 3gg5.”

“Hm…you can stay here for a while then.” Baghera decides, before going back to crawl up onto the wall. He watches as she starts to type something into her communicator, Charlie assumes to probably alert Mariana of where he is.

Well. This was nice as it lasted. He can just enjoy his kill and wait for her to show up then.

He quickly eats, before laying down in the show watching curiously as Baghera starts to build again. After a while Baghera starts to sing to herself a song as she builds.

Charlie listens carefully, before trying his best to join her by harmonizing. He doesn’t exactly know what she's singing, and it would be impossible for him to fully sing along as a code, but he’s trying his best.

Baghera stops, looking down at him wide eyed, before cheering, “Yeah!!! Join me!”

And they both sing through the night, well, most of the night. Until an annoyed Mariana showed up, clearly tired, and now pissed she had to pick him up.

“ You. ” he hissed as he stomped his way over through the snow.

Charlie’s ears go back and he tries to make himself smaller.

Mariana sighs, and turns her attention towards Baghera, “Thank you for messaging me. I can assure you this won’t happen again.” and she glares down at the code next to her.

“Oh it’s fine! It was nice to have around actually. Gave me some company. And it sang along to the songs I sang to myself.

“Oh. Well it still probably shouldn’t show up unless expected.” Mariana mentions, “Which I apologize for that since it's under my care.”

Baghera chuckles, “Feel free to have me watch when you can’t then. I enjoyed having the code around.”

“I’ll…consider it.” Mariana answers, “However I would like to get home now.” and she nudges Charlie with her boot, to which Charlie flops over onto his side instead of getting up, causing the Mexican to groan. “Oh I am not dragging you.”

Charlie huffs and finally stands up, following Mariana as soon as she starts on her way home.

“Don’t do that again.” Mariana scolds, “You’re staying inside now until I get that hole patched and the ground under it reinforced. Understand?”

“50rry” Charlie grumbles.

“I’m having Juana keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t escape.” Mariana adds.

Charlie just rolls his eyes, before smiling a bit to himself.

Really, he doesn’t regret a thing. 

Chapter Text

Charlie was doing well, to say the least. He is back with his family, however only Juana knows it’s him. But he’s back. He can see them every day. He can protect them. And he can do it all without stress of it being him at least with Mariana. They are doing fine without Charlie. Juana still has a parent, and many others protecting her. But most importantly she is alive. That's the reason he agreed to those changes that took place. To ensure everything is normal, happy, and not fucked up by his own miserable existence.

But, it really does hurt seeing Mariana visit his grave.

Seeing her sitting at the ground beside it, grass having covered the dirt in the time since the burial. Eyes tearfilled as she sits leaning against it, speaking out loud, “I refuse to admit you are dead. There is no dead body. But,” Mariana takes in a shaky breath, “it’s getting hard to keep hope. Please I just need one sign you are still alive.”

Charlie sits aside near the entrance with Juana watching as Mariana just speaks to the grave begging for anything. He feels bad, staring down at the ground to try and avoid seeing his face.

A small tap at his side.

Juana.

‘Aren’t you going to give papa a sign?’

Charlie winces, “1t’5…n0t 3x4ctly th4t 345y. Th3r3 15 @ r3450n 1 n3v3r t0ld h3r. Y0u w3r3n’t 3v3n 5upp053d t0 kn0w.”

‘Oh’

“Tru5t m3 1 w0uld 1f 1 c0uld. 1 ju5t…..” he trails off. In reality there is no reason for him to keep the secret. If anything, it would open up more opportunities for him and all with Mariana. But it’s the nagging self loathing in his head, telling him their lives are better without Slime. That this is his best option to keep secret as a code and protect from afar. “5h3’5 b3tt3r w1th0ut 5l1m3.”

Flippa frowns, she sits there for a moment, before signing, ‘If I never knew that you were well, you. I think I wouldn’t be better. I’d miss you, dad.’

Charlie sighs, pulling his daughter closer to him, “1’m 50rry, m1 hu3v4…”

‘So why would papa be different? You two are married.’ Flippa points out. ‘It's clear she misses you.’

“1t’5 ju5t f0r th3 b3tt3r. 1’m 50rry.”

Flippa frowns, but nods, pulling herself out from his grasp and going over to sit with Mariana.

He huffs, standing up, not exactly wanting to watch this anymore, and goes to wait outside of the graveyard. He waits until his family leaves, and trying to cheer Mariana up, he lightly bumps his head against her.

Mariana just softly smiles, gives him a couple pets, before continuing on her way. Juana at her side, they hold hands as they walk.

Once they get inside, Mariana looks around, before groaning “Maldita sea. Realmente no puedo pasar la noche aquí. Juana recuerdas ese lugar del que tu padre Slime solía hablar? la cascada?” (Damn it. I really can't spend the night here. Juana you remember that place your father Slime used to talk about? The waterfall?)

Charlie’s eyes widened. The waterfall. First couple nights on the island, even though he built a house, really wanted to explore the island more. So he would wander until he found someplace pretty to sleep for the night. One of his favorites was a stunning waterfall, and he always swore he would bring them all one day. He even mapped out where it was to Mariana once.

Flippa nods. ‘The place he wanted to take us?’

“Si, Creo que esta noche vamos a acampar. Realmente no quiero estar aquí en la casa en este momento.” (Yes, I think we are going to have a camping night tonight. I really don't want to be here in the house right now.) Mariana announces.

Juana’s eyes sparkle as she nods.

“consigue tus cosas, mami.” (get your stuff) Mariana encourages, nudging Juana to start running up the stairs excitedly.

Charlie is about to follow, but Mariana calls out, “No. You stay here, you’re helping me.”

Charlie whines a bit in annoyance, but there is a grin on his face as he turns around to look at Mariana, who is already making his way towards the Kitchen, “Vamos.” she calls.

Charlie follows, and watches as Mariana starts digging through chests. Tossing some foods on the table and then moving to put them in a backpack he slings across his back. Before going to a closet and digging and making a triumphant sound as she pulls out what looks like a saddle bag and looks over at Charlie.

“....4r3 y0u 53r10u5…” Charlie just stares.

“Wear this.” Mariana starts to walk over.

“1’m n0t 4 fuck1ng p4ck mul3.” Charlie growls.

“Well you can’t exactly carry things with your paws, and if you are coming you’re helping carry things. This will just make it easier for you. It can hold a lot of our camping supplies. I have the food and tent, you have cooking supplies and the sleeping bags, and Juana carries her own stuff. Sounds fair.” Mariana lists off.

Charlie groans, but lays down so Mariana can get the saddle bag on him. Mariana nods, and starts to get him prepared for the trip.

Juana gets back down with a backpack of supplies and a grin on her face.

“Tenerlo todo?” (Have everything?) Mariana calls out, fixing the last sleeping bag onto the code.

Juana nods, ‘Yep! I’m so excited to see this place.’ she signs excitedly. She glances to Charlie for a second while signing.

Mariana hums in agreement, before picking up his supplies again and looking at her communicator, pressing a button and a hologram of a map appears with a pinpoint selected. “Vamos” She calls, as they start on their way.

The walk is nice. Charlie drags a little bit behind more than usual with more weight on his back after all, but other then that he is enjoying it. Juana is running back and forth between him and Mariana, and after a bit Juana gets tired of walking and ends up going up onto his back, which adds even more weight, but Charlie is strong and can handle all of this.

When they get there, Charlie hears the familiar sound of rushing water splashing against the cliff and river, and he plops down where he remembers he slept. Fully tucking his legs under him in a loafing position.

Juanaflippa gasps as she jumps off, throwing her backpack aside and runs to the river to stare at the waterfall.

“Cuidado!” (careful!) Mariana warns as he watches Juana immediately sprint off to the water. Juana waves in acknowledgement, before sitting on the edge of the river and just watching the water flow. Mariana chuckles at that, before turning to look at the code, and raises an eyebrow. “...can you help?”

Charlie just stares, before standing, and shaking his body to try and get the supplies tied onto him off, watching as one of the sleeping bags fall and then a lot of jangling from the cooking supplies.

Mariana stares back, before sighing and walking over to offload everything else and get the saddle bag off too. “Better?”

“Much. wh4t d0 y0u n33d h3lp w1th?” Charlie grins.

“Just holding stuff down with the tent. I know you can’t help much since you don’t exactly have hands.” Mariana answers.

Charlie nods, following Mariana to the tent, where he places his paws at places Mariana tells him to hold down.

When it’s fully set up, Mariana tosses the sleeping bags inside along with Flippa’s bag, before saying, “It looks like the rocks for the campfire are still there. You watch Juana while I get firewood.” Mariana commands.

Charlie nods, and goes over to where Flippa is and sits beside her.

‘Hi dad!’ She signs happily.

“H3y Fl1pp4” Charlie greets back.

‘This place is pretty. I’m glad you found it.’

Charlie hums in agreement, “1’m h4ppy 1 5h0w3d M4r14n4 th3 5p0t. C0uldn’t 3x4ctly d0 1t n0w.”

Flippa thinks for a moment, before signing, ‘How did you find it?’

“4 cl053 fr13nd.” Charlie answers simply, “1 kn0w 50m30n3 w1th @ kn4ck f0r n4tur3.”

Flippa looks at him curious, ‘can I ever meet them?’

Charlie’s eyes widen as he shakes his head, “n0t n0w!!!” he frowns, trying to calm himself down a little, “y0u w1ll 0n3 d4y. But n0t n0w.”

Juana looks surprised by his outburst, and reaches out to lay a hand on one of his paws. ‘Did I ask a bad question?’

Charlie sighs and shakes his head, “n0. 0f c0ur53 n0t. Ju5t. 1t’5 h4rd t0 3xpla41n.”

They sit in silence after that. Both staring out at the waterfall, before Charlie hears the sound of Mariana coming back with kindling and as many large dried sticks as she can hold. He drops them near the fire ring with a huff, before getting to work on setting up the campfire.

Charlie stands up and goes over to watch her, watching slightly amused as she tries to light the dead leaves and sticks on fire but it doesn’t want to light that easily.

The sky is starting to turn to dusk, and Mariana lights the fire. Mariana grins at that, before grabbing the cooking supplies and her bag with food, pulling out a cutting board, knife, a metal holder that he sets in front of the fire, and then a skillet which he sets on the holder, and starts to cut up veggies, throwing them onto the skillet with some cooking oil. Mariana also throws in some tofu and spices before he starts to stir the meal.

The smell of cooked food fills the air, and Charlie who hasn’t had anything actually cooked in a while is immediately salivating at the smell.

Mariana looks over and chuckles, “Lucky day, You’ll be getting some of this too I forgot to grab your usual food.”

“F1n4lly. 50m3th1ng 0th3r th3n m34t.” Charlie grins.

“...Do codes eat more than meat?” Mariana looks surprised.

“W3 34t 4nyth1ng. Ju5t h4pp3ns m34t m05t c0mm0nly 533n.” Charlie shrugs.

Mariana hums at that information, before grabbing out three plates and dishing up the now completed meal. “Not much, but it’s vegan. Can’t exactly make anything complex with just a campfire.”

Before giving a plate with a fork to Juana and putting another plate on the ground for the code.

The family eats happily. Charlie practically scarfing down his meal because he’s unsure when next he’s gonna be getting something cooked and not just raw beef or something.

After the meal, Mariana washes the dishes in some water and they just watch the campfire.

The sky is clear, and once again can Charlie see constellations dancing their slow waltz across the sky. A smoky band stretching across the sky as the encompassing arms of the milky way. The moon shines its gentle light as a waxing gibbous, and Charlie finds peace in the quiet serenity of the night. He finds his eyes trailing up to Polaris, and then across it to Ursa minor, the constellation of the little bear. Grizzly was the one to create the stars, the constellations were intentional. He wanted to allow the humans to mentally paint pictures in the skies, and to make stories around them. The humans always attributed Ursa major to Nature, but it was in Ursa minor that Grizzly put his all. The cub that stayed at the top, and watched with curious eyes the universe.

He glances down to his family, seeing them chatting idly, just enjoying the moment, staying close to the fire to keep warm. A soft smile comes to his face as he watches them.

This is what he and his brothers intended when they fixed the universe after their first try. Happiness for the mortals. To allow them peace and to give them the tools to succeed. Let them build families. Let them embrace the nature around them.

Let them thrive.

Let everything living thrive.

And to watch this is what drew him to living among mortals. He wanted a piece of that serenity.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts as Flippa yawns.

“Tired?”

Flippa nods, leaning into Mariana’s arms.

“We can sleep now.” Mariana carefully picks her up in his arms and carries to the tent.

Charlie, eyeing the fire, and knowing he can handle it proceeds to flop onto the fire to smother out the flames.

Mariana walks out a second later, stares, “Qué carajo.” (What the fuck.)

Charlie stands up, and trots over to Mariana.

She just stares, before sighing, “You’re sleeping out here tonight you’ll stink up the tent with the smell of smoke.” Before she walks in and zips the tent door shut.

Charlie chuckles a little as he goes over to sleep near the waterfall, practically being able to sleep anywhere as long as he can leave his mortal body to do his work as Magic.

Closing his eyes, he lets his mortal body fall into slumber, as he transfers his divine spirit to his pocket dimension to start his work as Magic once again for the night.

Chapter Text

Condi enjoys the solitude of mortal life. Of course he still does his role as the god of realms and the afterlife, but he also enjoys sitting in his little lighthouse near the sea just watching the world his fellow gods made. Honestly he’s a bit envious of the overworld. Of course he is proud of his realms, he made the night sky shimmer brighter in the end, and, well, The nether was never meant to be pretty, but he still loaded it with materials that made going to the realm worth it.

But he can admit that the craftwork Grizzly and Bizly mostly put into making the overworld, and Charlie infusing everything in between making it interconnected through magic, really made it a sight to behold. Which is why he tried to mimic the overworld with the Afterlife, and Grizzly’s presence really helped with finding out how to do it.

He stands up, stretching, before deciding to try and take a walk across the island. He’ll try to hide if he sees any islanders. It’s for the best if only the angel of death knew he was here. He knows the reapers and demigods would keep him secret if they saw him too, especially the reapers since he is kind of their boss, but he would still prefer to keep hidden since he really doesn’t want anyone really questioning why he is here in the first place.

Stepping out the front door however, he immediately regrets his decision for a walk when he spots a mechanical white bear examining the place with soulless eyes, of which immediately lock on him when he steps out.

Condi tries to go back into the lighthouse, but the bear starts to briskly walk over, so he sighs and lets the bear approach.

The bear stares at him, before a clearly robotic voice emanates from it, “What are you doing?”

Condi shivers at how soulless the voice sounds. “Why do you want to know?” he bites back, really not wanting to be in this situation.

The bear just stares, before speaking again, “Hello, I’m part of the QSMP census bureau. I would like to ask you some questions.”

Condi stares, before nodding. “Okay..?”

The bear nods and throws a book at him with questions written down. He hesitates before answering. What do they mean ‘was’?

What was your name? 

‘Condifiction’. Simple enough.

What was your age?

Well, he can’t exactly say his age. He’s a god after all, so he writes ‘N/A’

What was your occupation?

Condi squints at this one. He writes, ‘just being a guy’

How did you get here?

Ah so that’s what this is all been building up to. He chuckles, writing ‘boat’, which is simple enough. Probably how most if they weren’t intended would have gotten here.

Why are you here?
‘To find a friend.’

He hands the book back, waiting for the bear to move out of the way so he can continue on.

The bear reads, before nodding, blows bubbles at him, then tosses him a communicator, “I hope you enjoy the island.” before walking away.

Condi stares, watching the mechanical bear disappear around the corner, before he sighs, stares down at the communicator, and then shrugs, latching it to his arm.

[+] Condifiction has joined the game

Shit.

Ph1lza> oh hey!
BadBoyHalo> O.o
Cellbit> new person??
MissaSinfonia> QUE
mikethelink> ??????
FoolishGamers> CONDI????
Cellbit> wait do you guys know him?
FoolishGamers> uhhhhhhhhhhh……..

Condi sighs, he should have realized this is gonna happen, and now he has to explain himself to the other immortals on the island. He just hopes Charlie never noticed.

Condifiction> hey guys!
FoolishGamers> where are you? I haven’t seen you in forever!
Cellbit> Can you meet at spawn? I think we should meet up

Condi looks down at his communicator with a frown, he really doesn’t wanna expose his location now.

Ph1lza> I can get him to spawn
Cellbit> that works
FoolishGamers> YAYYYYYY

Condi just chuckles a little. Really not the ideal situation, but he’s sure the other immortals would cover for him if any mortal asks too much. 

Not long after he sees Phil running over, “Hey!” he greets, “I thought you were planning on staying hidden.”

He sighs, “Yeah that was the plan.”

Phil nods, glancing at his arm, “How did you get a communicator?”

“Uh…weird mechanical bear showed up and asked questions.”

“Cucurucho. I wouldn’t trust them.” Phil explains.

Condi nods, “Yeah I don’t trust them a bit.”

Phil nods, “Well. Let me get you to spawn then, shall we? And since you have that we can get you set up with a bunch of waystones so you can travel faster without using your powers.”

And with that they head off, Phil leading the way as they move into a more populated area. They end up walking alongside the wall after a bit, Phil pointing up at where he assumes his house is, “When we’re done we can go up there so you can grab the waystone and I can grab you one for your house.”

They end up at a space between the wall, looks like it was blown through.

All chatting and waiting he sees a mix of reapers, demigods, and mortals.

Foolish, one of Bizly’s demigods immediately perks up when he spots Condi and rushes over pulling him into the group.

Mike, one of Charlie’s demigods waves at him, seeming a bit tense. Which honestly he can understand. Might not be a good sign all of the time when a god shows up. The mortal in a pacman hoodie beside the demigod glances over from chatting with someone before grinning and waving. Condi, feeling some sort of divine connection between the two of them, wonders if Mike has chosen a champion.

Other than that, two of his reapers, Bad and Missa, seem to be there too. And a cat hybrid mortal who waves at him when Foolish drags him to the group.

“You’re Condi then?” The cat hybrid asks, “I’m Cellbit by the way.”

“Yeah that's me. Nice to meet you.” He greets.

Cellbit nods, “So. How do you all know him?” He asks curiously.

They all glance at each other, before Bad ends up answering, “Friends of friends or such from before the island.”

Condi nods, going off that, “Yeah we’re all just good acquaintances.”

Cellbit’s eyebrows furrow, but he nods. Condi just takes the small win of he’s not pushing if he doesn’t believe it.

“So. Have you just arrived? The federation never told us about any new people.” Cellbit asks.

“I’ve…been here for a while. Not too long. I have someplace to stay at least.” Condi answers.

Cellbit hums, “Is the lighthouse that just appeared your house?”

Well, no use hiding that anymore either. Condi just nods.

“We should probably do a tour of the island for him right? Get him set up with the waystones and then talk more later.” Bad suggests, and gives Condi a look insisting that they will do so later.

Condi nods back.

Phil takes the lead immediately after, “Alright let's get this going then before it's too late. We need to do this and also get the eggs tasks done before the day ends after all, right? First stop lets say is my place since it's closest and we can go from there.”

And with that the tour starts. 

Chapter Text

                     MISSING:

                    Slimecicle

If you have any information on the missing
islander please contact the federation.

Charlie finds himself staring at the missing person poster at spawn as he waits for his family to return from their tasks, having left him there since he can’t exactly use a waystone and he was able to tag along for the first task. He’s fine with this though, it’s nice to get out of the house. Or even to just watch people as they move along their day, spawn being a huge hub for movement across the island of course. He has unintentionally scared a couple people even as he sits outside of the teleportation room as they don’t expect to walk out to see a code. Honestly, it’s more funny than anything watching them suddenly jump and grab at a weapon, before realizing it’s the “friendly code” as he heard someone call him and watch as they try and act like nothing just happened and move on.

His eyes land once more on his missing person poster. Honestly, he kinda wishes they would give up. They aren’t going to find anything. And if through some insane luck they figure him out, he is even more fucked because they will likely try and capture him as he literally turned into a code. He huffs and slashes the poster down, stomping it into the dirt, before turning his attention to once again waiting for his family.

Waiting……….

Waiting……….

Great. He’s bored.

Nothing to do. He guesses he could just let the mortal body fall asleep and do some divine work, but really that seems very boring. It’s daylight, there are people out! He’s an extrovert! He needs people and conversation and chaos! Not this boring waiting around shit. If he wanted that he would have stayed in Molympus!

He lets out a whine as he decides he can’t just sit here! He needs to explore! He needs to wander around the woods! Feel the dirt under his feet! Rip apart a-

Okay now that’s just the code brain.

Shit is that what Bizly mentioned a couple times can be an issue with his shapeshifting as a mortal? That he sometimes just enters a mindstate that is purely just a creature. Well that’s fun. Guess his current mortal form isn’t exactly a player anymore per se, so it would make sense.

Either way he can’t just sit around.

Mariana already thinks of him as some creature already, so he can’t just be completely expecting him to stay still, right? He can move. He can wander and explore.

So that’s what he does. He just wanders off into the world.

It’s been a while since he could just run around like this. Honestly he kinda missed the freedom of not being tied to watching over his family in the house the whole time. It scratches some itch in the back of his mind, that probably now he thinks about it is probably once again connected to the fact his mortal body is literally a code.

But he enjoys this, running around and letting himself just let go of any sort of restraint he has on himself. He ran until he came across something peculiar.

There was a pulse.

A pulse of magic that originates from somewhere nearby. He hesitates, unsure of what it could be, but decides to follow whatever it is. It kinda is a duty of his, as the god of Magic after all.

As he gets closer, he is suddenly hit by a wave of magic as it seems it tries to grab at his own magic. He backs off immediately, feeling his mortal body collapse as he enters his divine form as a form of protection against this force as he stares directly at the ground where the energy seems to dissipate into again. It seems whatever that was, is an energy inside the earth of this island.

He has been aware of this. He senses whatever it is since he first decided to come to the island.

However he never thought it would be aggressive towards him. To try and tug at his magic like that…that is a gamble not many entities are willing to try with a god.

Something is going on here, and he needs to look into this.

The sound of footsteps break him from his thoughts as he twists around to see his family, Mariana’s eyes wide as she looks directly at him. Juana’s eyes glancing at him, then to his unconscious mortal body as she gasps and runs forward, ignoring Mariana’s calls for her to come back, and she skids to a stop and shakes at the code that lays asleep at his side.

Mariana runs over after her, and he stops to give him a glare before stepping between him and Flippa.

Charlie gawks a little, before asking, “What’s with the look?”  his voice naturally reverberates in this form helping disguise.

“Don’t you dare do anything to her.” Mariana hisses

“Why the fuck would I hurt a child?”

Mariana gives a look, “I am sure you are aware of your reputation, Magic.”

He sighs, she does have a point. Most often if they are not his worshippers, all people hear about him is the petty curses he places on people to mess with them or inconvenience them when they annoy him. He guesses Mariana was worried he would find Flippa a nuisance.

“I  have no reason to curse your child. Clearly she is concerned about the unconscious code right there.” He points out.

Mariana’s eyes narrow, “Did you do that?”

“I would have no reason to do such a thing. That is of Life’s domain not my own. I just have….” he hesitates, “It’s dangerous here. You should leave.”

“...If there’s danger we should probably know of it.” Mariana retorts.

“A danger not of mortal concern, leave. Unless you want to give me a reason to curse you.” Charlie threatens.

Mariana glares, but backs off, and going over to Flippa who is still clinging to his unconscious mortal form. He honestly feels bad.

“Little dragon, if this assures you in any way. Your code is fine. Will wake up soon, I promise.” Charlie gently offers.

Juana looks up at him, glassy eyed as it seemed she was about to start crying and nods.

“Now once again, please leave. This place is dangerous.” He states more gently this time, and uses his magic to teleport them back home, including his mortal body safe to the code nest.

He sighs, staring up at the sky, before sending out a telepathic message to all immortals on the island. Be careful of the dirt below you. This island holds a secret, and it seems to be one that is keen on stealing our magic.

Before he lets his divine form dissipate and once again he wakes up in his mortal code body, Juana clinging to him, and a pissed off looking Mariana cursing in spanish, every once in a while hearing the word “magia” which clues him off that Mariana is pissed with him teleporting them away.

He moves to curl around Flippa more, and tries not to laugh a bit at Mariana’s anger at him, just letting himself enjoy this moment with his family, hoping that whatever that was doesn’t go for mortals next. 

Chapter Text

Mariana was frustrated to say the least. Why do the gods have to be this ominous and vague? If there was a danger why would they not elaborate on the warning so they know why and can avoid better? And why was the code unconscious next to said god? Everything is way too confusing, and Mariana just sits down on the couch, watching as Juana and the now awake code just sit on the floor. Juana doodling on a piece of paper and the code watching diligently with it’s zeros for eyes.

Now Mariana’s had some time to adjust to the code’s presence in the house, honestly she can’t hate it. The beast is charming in it’s own strange way. It’s protective of Juana, and Mariana too actually. A couple times when Mariana was about to get out his axe to swing at a monster, the code was already at it and destroying the monster under it’s claws. It’s also a cuddler. If you even try and step by it’s nest it will try it’s hardest to pull you in.

Mariana found out the hard way when he finally got the nest set up in Juana’s room a couple days ago. It is a decent sized small little nook with walls built around it to give some privacy for both Juana and for the code. Mariana isn’t exactly sure now code nests are constructed so he can’t exactly transfer the nest directly in. So he dumped all of the pillows and blankets from the living room right in front of the new code nest area. She can remember the distressed beep the code made as it ran into Juana’s room, and immediately started pulling items into the new area, padding it out, running back and forth over and over again until it looked almost exactly like it did before but with different blankets in different spots mostly. When it was done the code laid protectively in the nest again, zeros almost glowing from the darkness of the nest area.

“Like it?” Mariana asks.

“Y0u d35tr0y3d my n35t.” The code grumbles back.

“You were in the way where you set up your nest originally.” Mariana shrugs, “and I just got what is essentially your room in the house finished so might as well force you to move in.”

The code stays silent from inside, seemingly thinking. Before it’s paws shoot out and wrap and Mariana knocking him over and pulling into nest.

Took until the code eventually fell asleep for her to be able to wiggle out from it’s paws. She won’t ever admit out loud that even in her annoyance it felt nice. The code is like a warm fuzzy blanket.

When Mariana snapped out of her thoughts he saw the code staring at him curiously. Juana unaware still doodling, laying on her belly, tongue sticking out slightly in concentration.

“Si?”

The code doesn’t respond, just standing up and walking closer, sitting beside the couch.

“That isn’t an answer…what is it?”

“Y0u w3r3 l05t 1n y0ur th0ught5 f0r 4 m0m3nt.” the code points out.

“It happens.” Mariana shrugs.

“Y0u w3r3 5t4r1ng 4t m3.” The code adds.

“I’m tired.” Which isn’t wrong. It was a long day. “Speaking of,” Mariana changes subject and looks at Juana who is staring at the two of them having stopped drawing, “Mami it is getting late you should get some sleep.”

Juana groans, but signs ‘Fine.’ and starts packing up her crayons and starting to make her way up to her room.

Mariana grins at the code, “You should follow if you want access to your nest tonight.”

“0h 1 533 h0w 1t 15.” the code growls, before turning around and following up the stairs towards Juana’s room. 

And in all honesty, Mariana is tired. She yawns and decides it’s time to retire for the night as well. So he gets ready for bed, curls up under the blankets, closes his eyes, and opens them again.

Once again in that enchanted forest.

“Great. First you are ominous as fuck, teleport me away after you won’t answer my questions, and now you bring me back here.” Mariana complains out loud.

Hears a chirp sounds from beside her, and she finds that slime from the last dream beside her once again, “At least you are here again.” he huffs, picking up the slime gently in hands.

The little slime gurgles and snuggles into his palms, and Mariana can’t help but smile at the small creature.

“Assuming I follow the path again?” Mariana asks, staring ahead at the path that leads through the giant trees and mushrooms. The slime chirps in response.

So Mariana walks down the path, moving her hands over to one of his shoulders to let the tiny slime stay on him but free his hands. The path is once again as stunning as last time, it is night in the dream world, but there are lanterns that are set on the sides that light the path, and the moon frames above the trees as if also guiding. Stars scattered across the sky, twinkling in the void. Every once in a while he swears he sees a shooting star dart for a split second.

The path ends at a clearing, where sitting on top of a poppy-covered hill is a certain deity with their slime wings lowered, lightly touching the grass. They stare up at the sky, and not looking back but well aware of her presence pats at the grass beside them.

Mariana scoffs, but compiles, slowly walking over up the hill and sitting beside the god.

“ Mortal. ” Magic speaks.

“I have a name. You know it, and have used it before.” Mariana complains.

Magic glances over, their green eyes piercing through the veil that obscures their face. Their head cocks to the side, “ You’d rather I use your name? ”

“Mortal just seems a bit much.” Mariana shrugs.

“ Well. You are. ” The god points out.

“It’s just…it’s like me just referring to you as god”

“ You can. ”

Mariana groans. “Anyways please tell me why you brought me here?”

“ You seem annoyed by me. ” Magic comments.

“Wow, how could you tell?” Mariana exclaims, sarcasm dripping from tone.

The god glares, “ Anyways now that is clear. I’d like to try and make up for things. ”

“How about you tell me why you were at that random place on the island with the code then?” Mariana asks.

“ Simply, there is something dangerous in the island. The code was just there already when I showed up. ” The god responds.