Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nano was positive that food was going missing.

At first, she was only suspicious of the matter. Maybe she had miscounted. Maybe she had gotten two different numbers mixed up. Maybe she had eaten some and forgotten.

But she knew she had made five bowls of chicken noodle soup. She knew she had because that was how much stock she had had, and she had used it all. Something, or someone, was raiding her noodle shop.

Like hell she was gonna let that slide.

"Duncan?"

" 'M in the chocobo pen."

Nano stomped over to him, arms crossed in an accusatory manner. "You've gotten into the kitchen without asking again, haven't you?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

"Cause food's going missing, and I don't think Blood donor can open chests."

"Well it wasn't me. Maybe you miscounted."

"Mm hmm. Or maybe you're taking food again. This is going on your bill."

"Aw, come on, it wasn't me! I've been living off Dino meat the past couple weeks anyway, I don't need to raid your noodle hut."

"DUNCAN!"

"Well what am I supposed to do with the stuff? They just keep dying, and you won't let me sell them cause they're 'unethical' or whatever-"

"-They're super unethical Duncan."

"-Whatever, and they're taking up chest space and starting to smell bad, and you charge me out the ass at your restaurant-"

"-You haven't paid anything!!"

"So I was resourceful! What did you think we were gonna do with all the Dino meat we had?"

"...iunno, give it a proper burial or something. We're gonna have a bunch of vengeful Dino ghosts on our asses now thanks to you."

"It's not my fault!!! They kill themselves!"

Nano sighed, moving her hands to her hips and glaring hopelessly up at the sky "Well, even if it's not you, something is stealing food from my noodle hut."

"Put out some mousetraps then."

"Are you saying my bar has mice? I'll have you know that I keep my kitchen spotless."

"We could set up the security camera in there."

"Duncan, the camera doesn't do anything, and we both know it."

"Then bloody sleep in there, I dunno. Maybe it's a ghost."

"Maybe it's Sjin. Or Hat Films!"

Maybe it's both!"

Nano had to laugh at that idea. "Oh god, can you imagine them working together? It'd be terrifying."

"Yeah, thanks for the nightmares Kim."

Chapter Text

Nano wondered sometimes if she was losing her mind.

But that wasn't right, she knew she was. But she wasn't, at the same time. She'd always been a touch off, and heavens knew what the flux was doing to her mind. None of this had much to do with anything really.

The long and short of it all was that Nano was going to burn down every building within one hundred yards of her if one more item disappeared from her pantry.

Duncan, having sensed her fury, had decided to leave her alone for a bit to try and find Sjin's base, so that they could extract revenge for the very angry dinosaur that he had found swimming in their toilet. Thus, Nano was left to herself, and was currently using the time to weed her garden. She sat on her hands and knees, angrily ripping unwanted plants from the ground and chucking them in any direction she saw fit. A small portion of her anger was dissipated by watching her luggage scamper back and forth gleefully catching all the weeds, but she still felt ready to stab anyone who looked at her wrong.

She looked up at the sky, tinged pink and orange by the setting sun. Maybe stabbing things wasn't such a bad idea.

Storing all of her extra items in the house, and locking Luggage safely away, Nano grabbed her sword and headed into the empty field near their home. The sound of metal hitting bones and flesh grated against her ears and soothed her temper, and soon the field was clear. However, Nano's mind was not. Without even a second thought to the matter, she turned towards the woods near them, determined to clear out the monsters undoubtedly hiding beneath its canopy.

With each mob that fell to the ground, Nano felt herself calm. Within an hour or so, and with a fair amount of string, bones, and brains stored in her pack, Nano decided it was probably a good time to head home and get some sleep. That is, that was the plan, until Nano noticed the light up ahead. Too bright to be a node or beehive, and no earthy smell that accompanied lava, Nano moved towards the source to find out what it was.

The light led her to a small clearing, in the middle of which sat a crude dirt hovel. Nano felt herself grimace at the miserable attempt at a house, not even managing to make a proper box, as it was missing blocks from odd spots and the corners were oddly misshapen. Light shine out from the holes in the walls and from underneath the poorly hung wooden door. Stepping forward, Nano knocked lightly on the door, curious as to whether it was made by someone recently, or abandoned long ago.

To her surprise, the door swung open at her knuckles press, swing inwards to reveal a tiny, filthy interior, and a very startled man. Nano quickly determined the man to be the only interesting thing in the building, and sat herself on the floor in front of him, where he leaned up against the mud wall, looking awfully tired, and not at all glad to see Nano. Completely ignoring the shock and distrust on the man’s face, Nano decided that she didn’t think he should be out here at all.

“‘m Nano.” She introduced herself, extending a hand to shake. The man chose to ignore this entirely, instead trying to shove himself a bit farther away from Nano, succeeding only in pushing himself into more of a sitting position.

Face to face with man, at least relatively, Nano could see that he was… well, he kinda looked like shit. Not that he was ugly, nah, he was alright looking. However, the man looked as if he had been hit by a truck, in a metaphorical sense. Scars littered the lower half of his face, and dark circles ringed his eyes. He was covered in cuts and bruises, many of which were still fresh or bleeding.

Nano quickly decided that there was no way she was going to leave the guy in such a state.

Realizing that the man had no intention of returning the introduction, Nano took matters into her own hands.

“What’s your name?” Nothing but a distrusting look and a further scoot away. “Do you have a name?” STill nothing. “Look, guy, I’m here to help, but if you’re not gonna give me anything I’m gonna nickname you something terrible. Like… I dunno, Frank or something. Something boring.”

“Rythian”

“Huh?”

The man sighed, grimacing a touch with the action. “My name is Rythian. Now go away.”

Nano clapped her hands together, the man flinching a touch with the action. “There we are! That’s progress.”

The man, or Rythian, closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall in frustration. “Look, I don’t…. I don’t have the energy to deal with you or anyone else right now. Please leave me alone.”

“Mate, I don’t know why you’re alone out here in the woods, but your house is shit and you look close to dead. You need help.”

“I don’t need help. I’ve got everything under control.”

“...Your house is made of dirt.”

“So? Maybe I… maybe I like dirt.”

Nano scoffed at this, rising to her feet. “Hun, nobody likes dirt. Come on, Dunc’s not here so we’ve got an extra bed.”

“...What?”

“You’re at the very least spending a night or two at my base. You look straight up ready to die, and if your hut has anything to say about the matter, you’ve got shi in the way of resources. You’re staying until you look better, right? Right.”

“No, I’m not. I’m fine.”

Nano sniffled exageratedly at this. “You would be so rude as to refuse my hospitality?”

“Yes.”

“Well too bad.” Nano observed Rythian, realizing the only way to get the man back to base would be to carry him. Without a second thought to the matter, Nano lifted him up in her arms, walked out of the house, and turned on her jetpack, Rythian grumbling the whole way. As she took the the air, he let out what could only be described as a squeak, and remained mostly quiet for the small trip back to base.

Once, while begrudgingly, tucked into Nano’s giant four-post bed, Rythian feel asleep about as quickly as Nano expected, though he slept rather restlessly, she noted.

It occurred to Nano that she had just invited a person over to a house only half hers, and that Duncan had no way of knowing of their new guest. She also quickly decided that she didn’t give a fuck, and promptly fell asleep in the hammock.

Chapter Text

Nano woke up to shouting.

Perhaps that wasn't the right way to put it. Nano heard shouting, and responded by chucking one pillow in the general direction of the racket, and covering her head with the other. This solution seemed to be temporary, however, as the shouting simply got louder, and the pillow was soon ripped away from her head by, as Nano discovered upon cracking open her eyes, a very angry Duncan.

Nano proceeded to kick him and roll over.

“KIIIIIIIIIIIM”

Nano mumbled angrily into her pillow before shoving herself up onto her elbows. “What?!”

“WHAT THE FUCK”

“So help me Duncan shout again and I will safari net a whole fucking stack of wasps and lock you in a house with them.”

“What. The. Fuck. Kim”

“What?”

“What the FUCK is he doing here?!”

“Huh?” Nano blinked, shoving herself up more so that she now sat upright. “Oooooh, you mean Rythian.”

“No, I meant Tiddles. YES RYTHIAN.”

“What did I say about the shouting?!”

“Kim!”

“I found ‘im in the forest and he looked half to dead so I brought him home!”

“She kidnapped me! I don’t want to be here any more then you want me here!”

Nano looked up to see Rythian not only awake, but up and in the farthest corner of the room, looking just as angry as Duncan did. Nano realized she had no idea what exactly she may have just unleashed.

“Look, I don’t know what’s up with you two, but you’re both gonna chill out right now. It’s too early in the morning for this.”

“Do you know who you flipping invited into our house! He’s flipping evil!”

“Excuse me, I’m evil? Last I recalled, you’re the one that planted a nuke under my base!”

“Oh my god are you never going to get over that? It was forever ago!”

“It ripped off Zoeya’s arm! And you destroyed the old world in a nuclear appocalypse! But yeah, sure, I’m the evil one, sure.”

“Oh my word, Rythian, grow up already. That was decades ago, and you did plenty of shit yourself!”

“Holy shit both of you shut up!” Nano rubbed a hand over the unfluxed half of her face in exasperation. “Look, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the two of you, but you both need to calm the fuck down. It’s like, not even nine yet.”

“Kim!!”

“Nope, shut up. You’re an adult, and you’re gonna get over whatever the fuck is your beef with the guy.”

“He tried to kill me-”

“-I tried to kill you? YOU KILLED ME. AND BLEW UP MY BASE. TWICE”

“YOU’VE BEEN DOING NOTHING BUT PLOTTING REVENGE FOR DECADES-”

“-YOU’VE BEEN DOING NOTHING BUT GIVING ME THINGS TO AVENGE-”

“Shut up!!! Shut up. Both of you now, oh my god. You are both giant children and I do not have enough sugar in me to handle this. Duncan, you’re a dick, you probably did a bunch of stuff, so apologize.”

“What?! I’m not gonna-” “APOLOGIZE” “-right, yeah, sorry, ‘er whatever.”

“Good. Now, Rythian, you’ve probably done some shit too, but at the moment you look like a stray breeze could snap you in half, and could pass out any moment. So you’re gonna get over whatever it is you’ve got with Duncan and get some flipping R and R or whatever. You look like an abandoned puppy.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m not going to just forgive him, you have no idea what he’s done to our past worlds, what kind of havoc he’s bro-” “I. Don’t. Care. You need sleep. And a shit ton of food. You’re staying here until you look better.”

“No, I’m not! I don’t need your help, I can-”

“-No! Sleep. Now. Discussion over, we are honest to goodness not letting you go anywhere like this.”

“I’m fine-” “You look dead! You look worse then dead! You look like you should be dead!” Nano ripped her pillow from Duncan, who still had it in his arms angrily, and shoved it on top of Rythian’s face. “Sleep. Duncan, come to the smeltery house, we’re talking about this.”

Chapter Text

"I just don't think it's a good idea, 'sall. You weren't in the old world, so you wouldn't know, but he was obsessed with revenge. Guy just- he just sat, and /brooded/ all the time."

Nano ran a hand through her hair in exasperation, leaning groggily against the smeltery while arguing with Duncan. "So you've mentioned. But that was decades ago! You're judging him based off of past grievances with him."

"That's just it! He doesn't understand past grievances. He still hates me and Sjin for what happened to the old world, and that was forever ago!"

"Then we'll get him to forgive you! Honestly Duncan, if we could handle Hat Films then we can handle Rythian."

"But it's different-"

"Duncan. The guy in there looks like he's dying, and I'm gonna place a solid bet that not many other people are gonna want to help him out." Nano tilted her head to the side, thinking. "Not to mention, if he really is this super powerful end magics guy like you claim he is, he's be a pretty stellar ally to have if Hat Films ever shows their sorry butts here again."

Duncan sighed, shoulders slumping in resignation. "I don't think it's a smart move, but I'll humor you. First sign he's doing something evil, though, and I'm feeding him to Allen."

"Fair 'nough." Nano shoved herself off the Smeltery upright, wandering over to a chest and looking through it aimlessly before grabbing some pork chops and a healing potion that Duncan had made for an old ritual. "Imma go give these to Rythian, see if it'll make him look a bit less sickly." She turned to leave, pausing at the door and turning back. "By the way, what did you end up doing with the Mosasaur?"

"Put it right on top of their beds."

-------------------

Nano found Rythian not, as she had hoped, in bed, but instead wandering nearby her Botania hut, examining the flowers growing around it. She had hoped that he would be sleeping, as the dark circles under his eyes suggested that sleep was needed, but she supposed so long as he wasn't yelling or trying to go back to his dirt hovel it was fine. She wouldn't break out the rope and chains to get him to sleep. Yet, anyway.

She walked up to him, pulling the food and potion out of her pack and offering them to him. "I brought you these," she explained, noting the questioning glance he gave her as she approached. "I thought you could probably use it."

He eyes the food with suspicion, before finally accepting the offered items. Satisfied with his response, Nano sets herself rather ungracefully down upon the steps of her hut, feet shoved out in front of her as she leans back to look at the sky. A few lone clouds float past as the sun begins its ascent, and a quiet creak and a blur of cautious motion in her peripheral vision lets her know that Rythian has joined her on the steps. A few blessed moments of content silence pass between them, before Kim speaks up again.

“You’re not going back to that little hole of yours you know. It’s rubbish and I’m not standing for it.”

She can hear an agitated huff of breath from Rythian. “You can’t just hold me here against my will, /especially/ if Duncan’s here-”

“Look, first off, I can. I don’t quite know how yet, but I can. It would count as like, assisted murder if I let you go. The police would be on my ass before you could snap your fingers. Second, I have no doubt in my mind that Duncan was an absolute dick to you in the past. He was a dick to me too, how do you think I got all bloody purple?!” She waves her arms near where she presumes his face to be, still tracking one particular clouds progress through the sky. “He was kind of a dick to everybody. But himself, anyway. Although that’s questionable in itself. You would not believe the fight I had to get into with him to get him to shower when I first started apprenticing. I don’t think he bloody slept before I came around.”

“You’re his apprentice?”

“Yeah- well, was. Still am, I guess, but I’m teaching him about as much as he’s teaching me now. Not that he really taught me much in the first place.”

“I’m surprised he took you on at all. He was never really one for company. He just kind of came and hung out with people when he wanted to.”

“Yeah, that’s what Sjin always said. Apprenticed under him first you know, till he and Sips blew me up, bastards.” She sighed, leaning back farther till her head rested against the smooth wood of the deck. “If I’m being honest, I took me on to see how fast he could scare me off. Didn’t work though, I just scared him back. God, the amount of chaos we caused.” She chuckled. “I suppose that never really stopped. All the same, I can guarantee he’s not as big of a dick as he used to be.” She paused, concern and concentration spread across her brow. “Well. Maybe he is, but he’s a different kind of dick. Less, ‘let’s throw Kim in the flux sphere and hide nukes everywhere’, more ‘let’s /‘accidentally’/ kill all of Kim’s pets and be absolutely bloody useless’.”

She hears a snort of laughter, and turns to see RYthian chuckling up at the sky. “There you go! Lo and behold, he actually knows how to laugh. It’s a Christmas miracle.”

“I’m not-”

“Oh don’t even, you are too! And you’re staying here. So accept your fate.”

She cuts off Rythian’s protests by rising to her feet, stretching for a moment before she turns to him, noting the still untouched food. “Now, eat that and meet me in the house. I don’t want to freaking force feed you, so please just prove to me that you have some idea how to take care of yourself. Imma go find some stuff to make you a bed or something.”

“But-”

“Nope!”

Chapter Text

Duncan didn't like this at all.

Which, if you asked him, was a perfectly sane reaction to his current predicament. Here he was, with his long lost/forgotten rival being forced to share a home with him, and he had no say in the matter.

That wasn't entirely true, he reckoned. He /could/ in theory put his foot down and fight Kim on the matter. This was like.... half his house anyways. Mostly. However, Duncan figured Kim was probably a scarier person to fight than Rythian. At least he knew he had a chance against the mage.

He didn't like having Rythian here, he didn't like how many questions his arrival brought, and he didn't like how paranoid the whole event had made him. While he didn't talk about it, Duncan had found himself at least a little proud of how different he was now than he had been during his earlier years. It was nice, not constantly worrying about who was coming to get you, or planning how to defend yourself against anything and anyone. But with the arrival of Rythian, he felt an anxiety descend upon him that he hadn't felt in a very long time.

After Kim had left to check on Rythian, he had paced back and forth restlessly, opening and closing chests without purpose and checking every valve and gauge in sight. Finally, he set his mind to working on the computer Kim had requested, rather than wear holes into the floorboards. This was how he found himself sitting cross legged in the floor, only partially tangled in wires with Tiddles sleeping soundlessly next to him. He lost himself in the complexity of electrical currents and codes, losing his stress as he tried to piece together a chip for the computer.

In his focus, he didn't notice the new presence in the room until one of the chests creaked. Expecting Kim, Duncan looked up, to find someone distinctly not Kim.

Perched atop one of the chests sat Rythian, head tilted as he tried to discover what Duncan was working on. Duncan tried to hide the instinct to jump at the arrival, instead furrowing his brow before returning to his work. However, Rythian made no show of moving, and it became harder and harder for him to focus as he grew more and more nervous. Finally he sighed, setting down the chip he had been focusing on and looking up at the mage.

"What are you doing here Rythian?"

Rythian looked surprised for only a second, before shrugging his shoulders. "I was looking for Kim. I don't really know where she went."

"That's not what I meant."

Rythian shrugged once more, quickly averting his gaze down towards the hands he had sitting in his lap. Duncan decided that was as good a queue as any to keep talking.

"Where did you go? Nobody's seen you in ages. We all kinda thought..." Duncan trailed off, not wanting to admit some of the theories he had considered in the mage's absence. "Well, I'unno what we thought. You just kinda disappeared. Even Zoey wasn't sure."

Rythian shrugged again, eyes still downcast and mouth held straight. "I just didn't feel like socializing. It's not a crime, Lalna, you did it yourself plenty back in the day." Duncan bit back his knee-jerk reaction to the harsh tone, instead focusing on detangling the wires around his feet and across his lap. "Not socializing doesn't normally mean falling off the face of the earth though. Nobody knew what happened."

Duncan figured that Rythian had no intention of continuing the current conversation, as silence gripped the two, and Duncan successfully separated one wire from the pile. "You aren't wearing your mask." He tried, though it came out more as a statement then a question, and Duncan kicked himself internally for it. Rythian looked slightly surprised, a hand rising halfway to his face before he caught himself and lowered it with a measured expression. “No, I suppose I’m not.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” Duncan countered, “it’s just. You normally do, ‘sall. I was kinda surprised.”

Rythian shrugged once more, and the continuous repetition of the motion was beginning to irk Duncan. “I lost it.”

“How?”

Rythian fixed him with a glare, before leaning back to slightly rest his weight on the wall behind him. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t know, or don’t want to talk about it?” The glare returned, and Duncan shrugged before picking up his unfinished chip and fiddling with it again, in order to give his nervous energy and curiosity something better to focus on. “ ‘S not a bad thing, you know. Your face and all that.” He rethought his word choice and cringed a touch, quickly continuing speaking. “Not in a weird way, I mean. You don’t have to hide it ‘n all. I mean, if you want to, cool, but nobody’s gonna flip out.”

The comment garnered no comment from the mage, and Duncan didn’t really feel like looking up to see if his face gave away his thoughts on his comment. He was reminded of Tiddles presence once again as she shifted onto her back and stretched, purring lightly. With a smile, Duncan scratched her stomach before returning to the chip.

“You have a cat.”

Duncan looked up, a touch surprised to find that for once, the mage had started a conversation. “Yeah. Her name’s Tiddles. Well. Tiddles the III, technically.”

“Kim mentioned you keep killing her pets.”

“It’s not!-” Duncan felt his shoulders rise in defense, setting down the chip to address Rythian. “It’s not my fault, I’m not killing them! They just wont stay alive! Tiddles 1 and 2 just, they just- they bloody /walked/ into the fire on their own! Kim was /there/ the second time! And Mickey- well. Mickey was kinda my fault, but it was still an accident!” The distressed feeling he felt eased slightly, noting the amusement Rythian held at the situation, and felt his shoulders slump. Picking up the chip again, and petting Tiddles to calm her from the outburst, he managed to mumble, “-wasn’t really my fault, anyway.” A small chuckle made him raise his head, before turning to look as the door swung open as Kim walked in.

“Oh good, you’re both alive. At first it was quiet, and I was kinda worried one of you had killed the other, and then there was shouting and I /knew/ one of you had murdered the other. But here you are.” She shrugged, before wandering over to rub Tiddles. “Ryth, I went ahead and set up a bed in the house for you so you don’t have to use mine. It’s kinda makeshift, but it’ll work for now.”

“-For now?”

“Yes, for now. You’ve gotten, what? At least eight hours of sleep since you got here. Probably. And you still look like shit!” She placed her hands on her hips, turning to glare at Rythian. “I’m declaring myself a Doctor now, cause I say so, and you don’t get to leave till you look like you could win a fight against a toddler” Rythian sputtered in protest, but fell silent as she glared at him once more. Sighing, he rose to his feet and exited the house, and Kim tracked him through the windows as he walked into the other building. Satisfied that he wasn’t running back to the forest, Kim set herself on the floor by Duncan and pulled Tiddles into her lap, raising an eyebrow as she turned to DUncan. “You didn’t kill him? I’m surprised, gotta be honest.”

“I wasn’t gonna kill him! …. Wasn’t really gonna kill him. Didn’t really think about it, only like. A little bit of consideration.”

“Mmm hm. Still, you didn’t, so good job.” She sighed, stroking Tiddles’ jaw as the cat purred on.

“Yeah yeah. Something’s off with him though. He’s not really himself.”

“That’s good right? If he’s not himself, maybe he won’t kill you.”

“No, if he’s not himself that’s very very /bad/. No matter what he’s gonna blame me for the stuff in the old world, but at least when he’s himself he knows how to have friends. He seems….”

“Tired?”

“Yeah, but… in more ways than one, I guess.”

“Well then. I guess we’ll have to make him him again.”

Duncan sighed, rolling his head back. “Great. Fucking great. So we’ve got Rythian to deal with, the flux to deal with, Sjin to deal with, possibly Hat Films to deal with, and whoever’s stealing your food to deal with.”

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that.” Kim tilted her head to the side, lost in thought. “Then again…. holy shit Duncan I’ve got an idea.”

Chapter Text

Kim, as stated, had an idea.

Well, technically speaking, it was more of a theory that was slowly inspiring an idea. All the same, it was /something/, and hopefully it would be something that would keep Rythian from his hole in the forest.

While she hadn't remembered at first, Duncan's outburst at Rythian's arrival had dug up old rumors and comments she had heard in her few years in Minecraftia. Despite only being passing comments or jokes heard from Duncan or Sjin in her early years of apprenticeship, it was something to confirm her suspicions towards Rythian's personality. Namely, that he was a stickler for justice and morality. Or, as Kim had decided as she headed out to find him, he was basically scrawny Batman.

She found him, once again, on the steps of her Botania hut, observing her flowers as he sat. Marching up to him, she sat herself down besides him and pointedly ignored his questioning look. Nonchalance was the key here, after all. She allowed him to eventually turn back to his studying of the flowers before she let her plan roll into motion.

"You know, there's a whole lot of things I don't understand about you." She stated casually, and could practically hear the swish of air displacement as Rythian's head snapped around to look at her. "I imagine I'm probably never going to get answers for most of the things I wonder about," she continued, "but one thing I have to ask, is how you managed to survive this long with such shit supplies and health without starving to death." She can hear him inhale slightly, while it's quiet. However, he remains silent, so Kim continues. "I mean, you must have been here for a while now. Nobody new has entered the world in quite a while." This part was one of the only parts of her plan that wasn't a hunch or a hope. No one new had appeared; if they had, she would have known. You could feel it, when someone new appeared. The air seemed to expand and contract, as new life was suddenly places into existence, new magic and mass suddenly appearing where nothing had been before. It came with a wave of nausea for Kim, and she knew she hadn't felt it in a while. “So you had to have been here a while. I mean, you’re pretty competent, I can understand that you could avoid most the mobs around here, but pretty much all of the animals and plants in the area we cleared out a while ago.”

She felt his gaze turn off of her, and she glanced over to find him looking a touch sheepishly at the ground. Time for the KO.

“You know, now that I think about it, most of the food in the area is here at our base. I can’t imagine you would have been able to wander far in your state.” She snapped her fingers. “You know, that reminds me, for a while now, I’ve noticed some of our food going missing. Well, i say our food. It’s mine, the little noodle hut over there. Make all the food myself and all that. It’s nothing much yet, but.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t suppose you’d know anything about the missing food then?”

Looking at him, she sees that Rythian looks more embarrassed than Duncan did when he murdered the first Tiddles, feet shifting anxiously against the gravel ground. “I, um. Yeah, I kind of.” He clears his throat, flushing a shade darker. “I kind of borrowed. Some stuff. I can pay you back, I-”

She cuts him off with a wave of her hands “Nah, nah, ‘s alright! I’ll just put it on your tab, no big deal. If anything, ‘ts a relief, knowing it wasn’t Sjin or Hat Films or somebody.”

“I.. My bill?”

“Ah, ‘f course! It’s no big deal, just favours and the like, nothing big. Help with manual labor, kitchen stuff, that sort of thing.”

“That sounds like a debt, not a bill.”

“Same thing innit? Besides, I don’t have people normally pay me with items, unless they’re a higher level magic than me and have resources I need, like Hannah or Kirin.” She paused, tilting her head. “Though I don’t think Kirin ever owed me anything, just kinda helped me out cause he was nice. Although, we were kind of babysitting his sheep.” She grimaced. “Then Duncan killed it, but ah. All the same, yeah, normally I just let people pay me back by helping out. LIke that thing I heard Nilesy did with his pool stuff back in the day, the whole, ‘10 diamonds or friendship’ thing? Just without the diamond option.”

“I don’t-”

“And since you’ll be helping out and stuff, and you don’t really have a base of your own, it’d probably be best for you to just stay here.”

He glowered at the ground. “You planned this.”

“About two minutes ago, yeah. Stroke of brilliance. But I’m not wrong, am I? Told you I’d find a way to make you stick around.”

He grimaced, shuffling his feet again before looking up at the sky. “I don’t like this-”

“So you’ve mentioned. Why not?”

He turned to her. “What?”

“Why don’t you like this?” She picked one of the nearby flowers, fiddling with its petals before pocketing it. “I mean, I can understand that you’ve had grievances with Dunc in the past, but he’s a completely different person now. He was a dick in the past, but he’s not so bad now. And I’d have your back.” She sighed, leaning back so that she laid on her back on the deck. “I don’t understand why you’re so adamant on not wanting to be here. Do you have somewhere else to go?”

“....No.”

“So then stay! The fact that you haven’t really put up that much of a fight kinda tells me you want to, but you’re being all stubborn about it. It’s dumb.”

“You’re dumb.”

“There you go, friendly banter! Chill out, alright dude? Nobody here bites asides from the Velociraptors.” She turned to look at him and winked. “Unless you’re into that of course.”

Rythian sputtered for a moment, turning at least three shades redder, and Kim cackled and rose to her feet. “Right, so, speaking of dinos, I probably should go feed them so we don’t have even more starve to death. You want to come?”

“I.. Do you mind if I stay here? I’m not- erm, I’m not really familiar with this kind of magic.” He made a vague gesture towards her flowers, and Kim smiled. “Sure dude, have at it! I can show you what I know once I make sure the dinosaurs are doing alright. There should be a Lexicon in the chest inside, if you want to have a peek at it.” He nodded, before rising to find the book, as she activated her jetpack and took off towards her dinos.