Chapter Text
The soft sound of the wind flowing in the air as the group laid on IC_009's back as it flew was quite calming, though the silence was oddly deafening. Rabb awkwardly looked around for a bit before speaking up.
"...it's been like. 20 minutes?? Where are we going."
He wasn't lying, as it had been a while. How far was this place???
"I SAID I KNOW A PLA- oh wait we're here!!"
09 began with furious exclamation, but quickly went to its usual cheerful tone once it spotted something. Without warning it began to descend, letting itself gently land face down onto the ground and waited for everyone to get off before it got up itself.
They all begin to walk into a nearby cave, before momentarily stopping to wait for Katrya. Ace admires the crystals inside the cave, describing it to Zei who is trying to envision it. Rabb and Cherissa are, however, insulting each other at the moment. 09 was scanning a few rare crystals to keep in its database.
Katrya had arrived without 09 noticing, approaching it very stealthily to try and scare it.
"Boo."
She quietly whispered near its sound sensors, before it jumped with a scream, running around, eventually toppling Rabb over, who stumbles into a hole. Right before he fully falls into it, he grips onto Cherissa's ankle insintctively, unintentionally bringing her down with him.
They both yelped at the impact of the fall, before Rabb grimaced at the weird dusty feeling around his entire body. He coughed from the powder, opening his eyes but unable to see anything from the darkness of the hole.
"eughh...what in Eunoia did I fall into!?"
He exclaimed in disgust, trying to scratch the glimmering debris off of him (to no avail)
"WHY DID YOU BRING ME DOWN WITH YOU!?!"
Cherissa yelled at Rabb, not happy that she was dragged into this. Well, karmas a bitch. She should've known better./ref
Eventually they both managed to crawl out, but jumped when they saw the state of the other.
They were both glittery, looking like they were dipped in sugar. Their colors also seemed lighter and softer.
"Oh my god you look so stupid."
Cherissa spat at Rabb, holding in a laugh.
"well, WELL YOU LOOK STUPIDER!!"
Rabb retorted, more defensive than she was.
"That's not even a real word."
She mumbled under her breath.
"Cherissa, that's enough."
Zei cut her off from saying anything else, stepping in before it escalated any more.
"Fina-"
"You too, Rabb."
He grumbled something but complied. The group of six walked deeper into the cave, examining it with curious and mesmerized eyes.
"Hey, you know what this reminds me of?"
Ace started, looking all giddy.
"If it's another object show reference I'm duct taping your mouth shut."
Cherissa warned because she did not have the energy to deal with his relentless references.
"Fries' fries in bfdia when he put gumdro-"
Ace walked gloomily with the others, with duct tape on his mouth. She was not lying.
"Where did you even get duct tape from?"
Zei inquired. She had a point, where did she get that from?
"I have it on me at all times, mainly in case Rabb doesn't shut up."
Wow, Cherissa really wanted to drag him into everything.
"WHAT DID I EVEN DO TO YOU."
The ragebait was clearly working though.
"Quiet down everyone. You will disturb the owners."
Katrya tried getting everyone to calm down, not only because it was annoying, but also to not disturb the owners, as she said. IC_009 followed closely by Katrya, nodding along to what she said.
"Girl, nobody lives in a cave."
The group had stopped by a door which had opened without them noticing. A fire based experiment with red skin and red horns was inside the door, her hair having the colours red orange and yellow like fire. They had four arms and a shirt dress with shorts under it. She also had a tail with a star at the end of it.
"I do."
The experiment said, which turned the attention of everyone to the door.
"Huh, well I'll be damned."
Said Cherissa, who squinted her eyes in confusion.
"Hey 09 and Katrya! Uh, what are the...main focuses of eunoia doing here?? Better yet...why is that ones mouth duct taped..."
They asked, though the question was more so directed at Katrya and IC_009 than anyone else.
"He wouldnt stop talking about object shows. I'll assume you know our names."
Cherissa nonchalantly replied, as Rabb began to slowly try to peel the duct tape off of Ace's mouth.
Though, Cherissa mischievously quickly moved to rip the duct tape off, earning a help from Ace.
"STOP THAT."
Rabb angrily yelled at Cherissa, who just rolled her eyes at him.
"Well...I guess so, yeah. You are more dysfunctional than I'd assume you would've been."
The experiment seemed to not know she should be greeting herself.
"TINA! WHOS AT THE DOOR?"
A soft voice yelled from inside. It seems like the voice introduced her for her.
The source of the voice walked up to the door, peeking over Tina's shoulder. The voice was also an experiment, though you'd need to second guess it, as she looked dangerously close to a forest entity. She had light gray skin, long yellow hair that had an ombre to a darker yellow, a halo over her head, a lavender dress that faded into a darker purple colour, and a staff with a moon on top of it. The staff had a light to dark blue gradient. Her eyes seem to be permanently close. Perhaps she was blind? (Inspired by Pure Vanilla Cookie)
"Oh, Quilaria. Just kat, 09, and some others. Specifically, the eunoia focuses."
Tina moved to let Quilaria have a better view, moving off to the side and going inside of the cave house.
"Hmm...well then, come in."
Quilaria moves to let the group in, whom all mutter quiet thank yous, some even slightly bowing.
The first room the group was greeted by was the living room area, with three blue couches. Rabb, Ace, Cherissa, and Zei sat on one, while IC_009, Katrya, Quilaria, and Tina sat on the other. One couch was left unused. They should learn from Lewis. The Lewis dot symbol is an example they should follow from him!
They all chatted for a while before a group of three other experiments walked in, seemingly all headed to the kitchen which was behind the living area.
One of them looked similar to Quilaria, with light grey skin, short hair with a side ponytail (some hair is still loose) that had a light to dark blue gradient, a grey t shirt with blue shorts, a halo, and a staff with a star on top of it. The staff is yellow to dark yellow gradient. They were obviously a child. They looked very energetic.
One had purple skin, though it was more periwinkle, rich dark purple, grey shirt, black shorts, and a missing tooth, with lop ears that faced downwards the same colour of his skin. He looked very childish and also rather energetic.
The last one had green skin, a little more muted, slightly long dark green skin, a bit lighter green than Ace's, a teal leotard with a little cape from the bottom of it, and bunny ears that faced upwards. She seemed quite shy, around the same age as the other.
Though, at the sight of the purple and green kids, Rabb and Ace seemed shocked and perked up. They stood up, which made the group of children turn their heads. A flash of familiarity was visible in the eyes of the green and purple kids but the grey one was just confused.
"BUNNO!?" "NOVA!!" both Rabb and Ace exclaimed their names, with Bunno (the purple kid) rushing to hug Rabb and Ace rushing to Nova (the green kid), who was frozen in shock but melted back to normal in Ace's embrace.
"Okay what the fuck is going on." The grey kid inquired, clearly still confused.
"Jaylee! Watch your language in front of the guests!!" Quilaria quietly scolded the child.
"sorry...!!" Jaylee nervously muttered out an apology.
"Well, we're kinda cousins. Eunoia made us using the same DNA, with few modifications so we weren't the exact same." Rabb tried to explain.
"But of course we're not ALL cousins. Like, Bunno is Rabb's cousin, and Nova is my cousin. Rabb and I are not related..." Ace quickly tried to explain that. Go ahead ship them I don't care,,
Jaylee nodded along to what they were saying.
"Also, mom, I'll be calling Gyla over. She's too busy with her old theories...I hope she'll make some time to greet them." Jaylee whispered to Quilaria, and once she nodded, they went to the corridor next to the kitchen behind the living area.
Bunno and Nova sat on the third empty couch, dusting themselves off to look a bit more proper.
"So, how was your trip?" Tina awkwardly tried to stir up some conversation.
"Oh, I carried a few of us and flew to-" 09 tried to speak but was cut off by Katrya.
"Not me. I looked up at the sky and I followed the big metal bird." Wise words said by Katrya.
"...Katrya, the big metal bird was me." 09 followed up to Katrya's words.
The room erupted in laughter, giggling at the scenario of Katrya looking up and following a...metal bird? Only for it to be IC_009.
Meanwhile, the laughter faded away more and more as Jaylee went farther and farther into the corridor. Eventually they stopped at one door, the dead end to the corridor.
They knocked before peering their head into the room.
"Gyla..? We have guests...greet them, please." Jaylee softly asks, calling out the other's name.
Gyla had pink skin, dark pink hair with side bangs, pink lop bunny ears that faced downwards, and one eye that was completely pitch black with a four pointed star as a pupil. She wore a white t shirt with dark blue pants. She had scars everywhere, some fresh some healed, all clearly self inflicted. Jaylee was aware of her problem and tried everything to get her to stop. The scars were mainly on her arms, all the way from her shoulder to her wrist, most of them being horizontal, some oblique. Some of them were healed, but they were bumpy and were darker than the color of her skin. The fresher scars were not really visible, as most of her arms were wrapped with gauze, but the blood had seeped from her skin. The blood was dried but some of it was fresh, indicating Gyla had used this roll of gauze before.
Gyla turns away from her corkboard to look at Jaylee. It had so many pictures tied together with red string, as well as documents and written theories.
"...it's sooner than I expected."