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Joe felt himself slipping. Could feel it in the way his mind started to spiral down a path of unfocused thoughts. The excess, childlike energy that made him feel like he was going to go crazy if he didn’t get up and go do something about it. And that was exactly what Joe was planning on doing.
His plan of action? Go and find Cleo, drag her along to the world of fantasy, play make believe for a couple of hours and then… well Joe wasn’t too sure, but he’d come to that later.
“Cleo!” Joe shouts. “Cleo, Cleo, Cleo!”
“Hiya Joe.” She looks up from a book, a half-finished sculpture in front of her. “How you doing bug?”
“Good! Excited!” He bounces up and down where he’s standing. “ Very excited! Come play!”
“Can’t right now, I’m right in the middle of something.”
Joe pouts. That wasn’t part of the plan. “Cleeeoooo!” he whines, tugging at her hands.
“In a minute Joe.”
He stops, waits, counts to 60 really, really slowly to insure that he’s doing it right, then asks again. “That was a minute. Now can you come play?”
The zombie hybrid sighs, “You actually counted, didn’t you?”
Joe Hills nods. “Yup! Which means we have an adventure to go on.”
Cleo sighs, closing her book. “Any chance I can take a rain check on that adventure?”
Joe looks at her with the most hurt look in his eyes. “You would want to miss out on an adventure with me?”
Cleo, by now, is used to his dramatizations. “Yeah I didn’t think so.” She disregards her book. “Alright. What do you have in mind for today?”
Joe beams. “Well…”
~~~
Jevin isn’t sure what’s he walked into, and he’s not sure whether to be more concerned that Cleo and Joe are currently covered in glitter and paint, or that he’s really not that surprised considering all that goes on in the hermit craft server.
“Jevin!” Joe cheers from around a chew necklace.
“Hello,” Cleo waves, turning back to whatever she is doing.
“Hi, umm, should I leave?” He looks over the miscellaneous art supplies. Oversized sheets of paper, markers and pots of glitter, open jars of dripping paint. “You seem busy,”
“No, come! Never too busy.” Joe pats a spot next to him and Jevin sits down obediently. “We’re making a backdrop!” He holds up the sheet of paper he was painting. “It’s gonna be a castle for the king.”
“Oh.” So that’s what the blob of grey was supposed to be. A castle. Jevin takes a mental note of that, feeling it may just be important to him later.
“It’s a work in progress.” Cleo supplies with a grin. She’s coloring in what looks to be a, Jevin isn’t too sure what it’s supposed to be.
She seems to catch him looking at her drawing and she covers it up with a hand. “Hey, I’d like to see you do any better!”
“Okay. Fine I will.”
Joe hands him a paint brush with a grin. “Draw umm, oh a cat! Draw Jellie! She can be the queen.”
“Alright, I think I can manage that.”
~~~
Nothing too eventful happens. Just the three hermits coloring. Joe occasionally spouts out random facts, verbal stims and the like. Jevin starts to realize there isn’t all that much of a difference when it comes to Joe regressed or not.
Other than the extra stimming, and lessened vocabulary, there really isn’t that much of a change.
“You should use glitter!” Joe Hills pops up in Jevin’s vision, holding a pot of silver glitter in his hands.
“Oh, sure.” He’s not sure if glitter really fits, but if Joe wants him to add it he shall.
Then Joe hands him the bottle with just a little too much force and Jevin isn’t quite ready for the movement. The bottle jostles, lid loose and within a blink of an eye the slime hybrid’s front is covered with sparkles.
“Oh.” Is all Joe Hills says before breaking down in a fit of giggles.
Cleo of course choices now to look up from her doodle. “Someone’s sparkly.” She comments dryly, returning back to her paper with little interest.
“Yeah no kidding.” Jevin tries to shake off some of the glitter from his clothes, only managing to get it stuck to his hands. “Great.” He mutters. “This is never going to come off.”
Joe hills giggles, and with a small smile, eyes the glitter bottle. “Oh no. Don’t you dare.” Jevin states, already imagining what’s going through the other’s head.
He’s not about to have the regressor pour even more glitter onto him. As Joe Hills goes to take a handful of glitter and instead of turning on him, tossing it onto Cleo, managing to get most of it in her hair.
She seems scarily used to this, and with a sigh mutters a quiet, “Joe Hills, just, why?”
“Cause,” The little actually seems to be considering why he might have dumped a handful of glitter onto his best friend. “Glitter!” he throws his hands up into the air and more glitter rains down.
“Fair point.” She says, “But you’ve asked for this!” getting a pinch of glitter and tossing it Joe Hills’ direction.
The little gasps, and Jevin can already predict how this is going to turn out. And his predictions come true as the little is already trying to dump another handful of glitter on her head.
Jevin really just wants to stay as far away from the glitter war as possible. Doesn’t seem to be an option though as his slow retreat catches both attention.
“No please, spare mercy!” it’s too late, as soon clear blue slime is replaced with shiny slime.
Great.
“Okay you both asked for this.” And with a playfull shout from the other it’s only a mater of minutes before there is a full out glitter war.
~~~
By the end of their little battle all three hermits and most of the floor is covered in shiny sequence. They must have gone through three whole bottles of the stuff.
Joe Hills had tired himself out, now dozing off in Cleo’s lap, while she played with his hair, more sparkles being brushed out of it.
“I’m going to be finding glitter for weeks.” The slime hybrid complained, not even attempting to try and pick out the stuff.
The zombie hybrid laughs, a bit softer around the edges than usual, weather from fondness, an attempt to not jostle Joe around too much, or something else Jevin isn’t too sure.
“But you’ll get used to it, I’m sure.”
The slime hybrid only grumbles.
And it’s fair to say that after this little interaction Jevin still found glitter within him and in his clothes for the next several weeks.