Chapter Text
Droid was pissed
and drunk.
Both are normal for him so honestly that shouldn’t worry anyone except Kryoz but something was different about the way he was drunk. Kryoz noticed. Pezzy noticed. Heck even Puffer and Grizzy noticed. Kryoz went up to him and tried talking to him and Droid just send him away. Not in his shouting and insulting manner like normally but rather in a normal and kind way.
Kryoz walking up to Droid already prepared to get shouted at “Hey Droid your doing okay here buddy? Y- you look of” he tried nicely and Droid just looked at him with his normal wide eyes he gets when he is too drunk to really know what’s going on. “Huh? Oh yeah I’m fine John. Thank you for checking up on me” he said in this calm and soft voice. Kryoz looked at him shocked and even Griz and Pez’s head snapped around to look at Elastic. “A-are you sure?” Kryoz asked sounding so unsure of this bizarre situation. “Hm? Oh yea. No I’m fine don’t worry ya pretty little head about it! You can go, I promise…” the alien can spoke with a slightly southern accent smiling brightly at the youngest.
Kryoz took a step back, being scared of how different Elastric was. “PEZZY!” Kryoz shouted while Pezzy, who also was in the openly connected dining room and heard what was going on, was already running in, having a grizzly bear hybrid rush in behind him. Pez’s face was as emotionless as always, Griz’s face however didn’t hide the surprise in his face. He did not look scared because he was never scared but something small like unsure or worry? Was in his face.
“We heard it John.” Pez stated his voice tinted in something weird Kryoz had never heard before. Pez kneeled down in front of Electric who had laid ack down on the couch. “Hey Droid.” “Hm?” “Can you hear me?” Elastic took in Pez’s softly spoken words and slowly nodded. “Droid. What did you take?” Pez asked right to the point and Elastric’s eyes darted onto him. They locked eyes and the younger one spoke again, trying to sound firm “nothing I just drank like I always do.”
Pez didn’t buy that shit and made him do a few test. “Squeez my hand.” “Okay now follow ,y fingers with your eyes and only you eyes” “breath at me” “okay my gods when what’s the last time you brushed your teeth?” To that one Elastric responded “yesterday with Marry! Don’t ct like my breath is that bad.” Pez almost would have flown over this comment like he did with the alcoholic’s drunk chit chat but something stood out to him. “Who is Marry?” Droid started giggling and laughing which twisted something deep inside all their stomaches uncomfortably. “Are you joking? Marry is our little sister! She has been in this family almost as long as me. That’s why you guys say and call us twins! Remember?”
Something inside Pez dropped at the realisation and he could feel a rush of adrenaline rush through his veins. “Grizzy we need to get him to a bedroom. I don’t care if it’s yours, Kryoz’s or mine! But not his own.” He ordered with a demanding tone as he started to move to get Elastic’s body to get him up. Griz and Kryoz didn’t know what was going in but the shift in Pez’s deminer scared Kryoz. “W-what is going on Pezzy?” He tried asking in a shaky voice but Griz and he himself were already moving Elastic to sit and stand up. “Hey! Nora, Hanna, what are you doing? Let go of me!” Pez grabbed one of his arms and slung them around his shoulder, Griz took the other and did the same. “John open the doors so we can get to my room and then we can talk!” Pez hissed angrily and gave him a pissed look. The younger one did how he was told and they slowly moved towards Pez’s room.
Elastic thought against them the whole way trying to push them off and screaming them to let him go. “NIRA THIS IS NONSENSE! HANNA STOP HERE!” At some point it was so bad Blarg woke up just to look what was happening and Puf came out of his room to watch this drama happen. “NORA! LET GO” Elastic screamed at Pez over and over again and Pez just tried to ignore it even after the younger brought the tears into it. “Nora please! I don’t wanna leave you Hanna Marry and mom and dad behind! You are my family! Your the only thing I have on this planet…” he started sobbing and Griz needed to take more weight off of the alien-cat just so they wouldn’t fall down the stairs again. Kryoz started playing with his sleeves while waiting at the next door. It was a nervous tick he did and by the looks of hiss shaking body and his eyes he was more then just nervous. But who could blame the little one? Elastic was acting like a mad man.
When they finally arrived upstairs where most of their bedrooms were Pez and Griz let out a small fight of relief. Elastic didn’t take that gesture as well as they could have hoped. “You are conspiring against me aren’t you!? You trying to get me to the lab just to have more space and something less to worry about? Right?” Elastic’s voice broke and the end and he full on sober now. “Soda boy you better have a plan for him because he is getting worse since we started moving him and I don’t wanna get beaten up by a feral cat!” Griz shouted as Elastic started fighting even more against them. “Well we need to hurry the fuck up or we will have exactly that!” Pez argued back and they started walking faster.
The cat hybrid had finally stopped screaming at them and just continued mumbling over and over again how they were with some lab people and how they were all bad and evil. Pez tried to just blend out as much of the information he was getting as possible. Elastic wasn’t in his right mind so who knew how much of his babbling was actually true or just his mind making up shit.
They finally arrived Pez’s rom after 15 minutes or more of fighting with this mane to walk a distance that would normally only take like 5 minutes maximum. Kryoz held open the door as he was supposed to and the trio entered. They were standing in the middle of the room and trying to manoeuvre him over to the bed. He fought them on every single step and finally broke free in front of the bed. “John! close the door!” Was the only thing Pez was able to vocalise as he watched Griz stumble back and Elastics eyes lend on him. Kryoz closed it as fast as possible and Griz stood in front of it to block their roommate’s exit way.
“Why are you locking me inside?!” Elastic screeched and Pez tried to calm him down somehow “Droid, please. We are not going to harm you. I promise.” “Then why did you forcefully drag me here Nora?!” Elastic was still calling him that. Nora. And Pez wandered why but asking that now would make it worse. “To protect you.” he tried. “Lier!” Elastic shouted and punched Pez in the face.The bottles head flew to the sigh and he could feel the warm metallic taste in his blood as liquid was collecting in his mouth. The voices were screaming at him to show this “mire and minor human who was more powerful here” but he ignored them instead he spit out the blood collecting in his move and stood to face Elastic with a string and neutral face. The younger eyes widened and tears started welling up in his eyes.
Pez took a deep breath, sighed and opened his arms with the biggest smile he could muster. “Come here buddy” Griz and Kryoz looked at him as if he had lost it completely but something in the alien shifted. “N-Nora?” He shed quiveringly. Pez just nodded his head and still held his arms open. Elastric jumped forward hugging the bottle boy and cried into his shoulder. Pez just held him even after his shaking legs gotten so bad his legs gave up under his body weight and he was only kneeling know arms tightly wrapped around Pez’s waist. They held this position for a long moment even while the other two in the room started at him.
An other 15 minutes probably passed and Pez could feel how stoked through his hoodie was however, he didn’t care. “How about me lay down on the bed?” A small. Do and some slow and exhausting looking movements and they laid in the bed above the covers. Pez didn’t care about the state his bed was in after this. He motioned Griz and Kryoz to get closer and sit down beside him and they did so forming a semi circle. Elastic was laying to the side of Pez, arms still slung around him, legs intangled in each other and head resting on the smaller chest. Pez didn’t care and just stared playing with the younger’s hair.
Despite how caring this whole interaction between the two of them looked, Elastic still had this angry, quick-tempered and tens feeling and expression over him while Pez still looked and felt emotionally checked out. Both men on the floor could tell (even if that thought mead Kryoz sad). Pez started humming a peaceful little lullaby and Elastic soon hummed along tiredly.
“How are you feeling buddy?” He questioned softly and continued the hair playing and head scratching while being careful around the colourful ears and antennas of the boy. “Hmm?” Came a more questioning sound back as he opened his eyes to look at the smaller man. “Okay I guess…” he mumbled exhaustedly and his eyes matched his tiredness barely staying open. “Okay. You wanna tell us what you saw or heard?” Pez quizzed further. “I saw-“ the exhausted boy became silent for a moment. “I don’t know if I can tell ya about it… is it okay even if it’s personal?” The southern accent just slipped out of they boy without realising it and Pez just gave him the smallest hint of a smile. “Sure go on buddy” Elastric still stayed silent thinking about the situation really carefully. “I saw my sisters. And a family friend. They didn’t look normal though when I think about it. They looked also a bit like you and” his eyes shifter to the duo on the as he pointed with his free hand at them “those two” Pez nodded. “Kay and what did it sound like?” “Like my home!” He stated proudly like a small little child telling him he got two cookies “you could heawe the birwdys nd the-the wind nd a lowt of kids playwing outside” [you could hear the birds outside the wind and a lot of kids playing] he slurred sounding like a small Texan toddler who still had struggles speaking. Kryoz couwd on the floor at how adorable the scene was which got him a tung out from the younger.
“Do you wanna tell us more or do you wanna sleep now?” Pez asked carefully. “Slewp” [Sleep] he said and the oldest nodded. He started humming the lullaby again and soon a yawn and silent snoring could be heard as Elastics chest started rising and heaving regularly. Pez spotted humming after a few more minutes before sighing one more time ir relief.
“What did or does he have” Kryoz asked quietly and Griz answered in a whispered tone “looks like a psychosis to me… hallucinations, thinking someone is after you or thinking everyone is against you? Sounds pretty text book accurate to me” [I am not an expert nor did I ever have a psychosis so don’t take this literal]. “I agree with Grizzy here. Not only that it also age regression by the way he talked.” Pez added. “What do you mean by that?” Kryoz wanted elaborate. “You saw or heard how he talked in a more southern probably Texan accent and also slurred his words like a little kid probably a toddler?” A nod from then youngest. “That’s called age regression. The mind travels and regresses to an age that feels save for them. It is kind of like the mind trying to run away to the past where it thinks everything was better” [I have no idea if that it the correct medical term or explanation if that even exists but please don’t cancel me].
“So he just wanted to be safe and that’s why he escalated?” Pez sighed a the amount of questions Kryoz was asking but understood the younger one was just trying to understand and worried and knowing him probably wanting to help. So Griz took over for the moment “so let’s start with the psychosis part. Probable causes for droid could have been the alcoholism, the drug abuse and some fucked up trauma from his past.” Kryoz nodded in understanding and the grizzly bear continued. “Okay so knowing Droid the way I do I would guess it wasn’t just the alcohol but that and something else in combination. Probably something from his past he tried burying deep down coming up again or getting triggered. He probably kept on drinking to forget it and ended up like this.”
“Then why was he at the beginning so nice to me compared then usually?” “You really have a lot of questions for someone who normally terrorise and terrifies you Kryoz.” Pez jokes and watches the smaller boy turn red from embarrassment as he stumbled over his own words “I eh- just I am trying understand I-“ Griz and Pez started chuckling. “You need to stop alleys falling for our embarrassment traps for you. While it’s funny to watch you turn all red and embrace it really shows how less confident you are even compared to Tucker and Puffer” Griz snorted quietly. “Okay I get it! I am Scarsdale can who easily gets embarrassed when getting called out about worrying about my friends or something like that! Answers please?” He hissed back pulling his knees up to his chest and laying his head on top of it.
“Right. Why was he nice? Well I guess he was hallucinating.” Pez said thoughtfully, recalling everything Elastic had told them. “He kept calling me Nora and Grizlybaby over here Hanna” “hey who are you calling here Grizlybaby?! Huh?!” Griz protested and Elastic started moving as if he was about to wake up. “SHH!” Came it from the other two at the same time and he covered his mouth. They stayed silent until they knew their out world companion was calm again. “Sorry, please just continue Pez” Pez nodded approvingly at the apology and continued “I guess he hallucinated us as two of his sisters? So you must have been that friend he talked about? Those are all theories, keep that in mind, but if you looked like said friend he might didn’t wanna bother you or even like you, so why should he get angry.” Kryoz opened his mouth for another question but Pez just continued. “The only reason he got so hostile when we basically carried him here was because we took him from where he was “safe” but also because we reminded him of something traumatic of his past.” Kryoz nodded but now Griz looked puzzled. “Now did you get that conclusion Sherlock?”
Pez face palmed with his free hand as the other still was playing with the sleeping boys hair. “Remember what he mumbled, said and screamed at us?” “Yes~?” Griz responded more questioningly. “Your a dumb ass who’s only good at horror stuff, you know that?” Pezzy retorts with his best resting butch face making him look even more tired than he was. “The whole “we are with the lab” and “you just wanna get rid of me” delusions?” “Oh…” it clicked for Griz after Pez pointed out the obvious “Yeah makes sense.”
“So the age thing was just him being scared because you two moved him?” Kryoz tried summoning it up. “Yes. That and the fact he was really tired… psychosises, especially in the cases like Droid just had with all the screaming and fighting, can drain people from their energy. That’s why he is so sleepy know. Well that plus the alcohol.” Pez elaborated. They all stayed silent for a long moment just listening to the man breath.
“I know you John.” Pez spoke up softly again. Something was different if Pez. As if a bit of his emotions came back again but they didn’t speak bout it for now. “I know you are wondering what you can do to help him get better or what you could have done to make this situation not even happen but the truth is.” A small pause for the effect “there is nothing any of us could have done. He came to us already a mess. We don’t know what happened in his past, we don’t know the origin of almost all of his scars and also he came to us allegedly as an alcoholic. We can’t change his past, we can just hope he survives the present to see the future and make the best of it.” Kryoz eyes widened and he started tearing up “but can’t we do anything against him gett worse?!” a whispered yell and Griz pulled him into a slightly awkward hug on the floor as the settled into a more comfortable position.
Griz didn’t really know how to handle this type of stuff but just copied what Pez did before. “N-no not necessarily. H-he could go to therapy or a psychiatrist but that would mean admitting he is broken and needs help. And he is not ready for that.” Kryoz just nodded and stayed in Griz’s arms falling asleep as well.
“Wow didn’t know you could act nice and not like a bitch” Pez started with a grin and it took everything in Griz to not shout at the older man “I didn’t know you had emotions!” “Wow wow wow! Okay low blow man! I have emotions, I just turn them off to take care of this house so it doesn’t explode, burn down or collapse! It’s easier not feeling anything.” “Well for me it’s easier to act like a bitch so I think we’re even!” “Fine!” And then they were silently glancing at each other before Griz started grinning. “Have fun explaining this tomorrow. I will brig John to bed.” And with that the grizzly bear stood up and walked to the door. “Fuck you and turn of the lights bitch boy.”
Griz did turn of the lights and with that the house soon went quiet seen as almost everyone went to sleep…