Chapter Text
Chosen watched as Mango placed a card from his hand to the center, his short hair bobbing merrily to the light pop going over the speakers. He’d cut it after the whole Rocket fiasco, admittedly a tad bit longer than his usual style, but he had to change things up every so often to stay hidden.
Mango's game night buddies were still in town, as promised, and decided the best way of celebrating King’s return from finally going over the edge was a good ol’ night of Gin, Getaway and Uno. (According to them, King was the only ‘ordinary’ stick in the group, up till that point. Chosen was intrigued by this and wondered what the others had done. Nothing worse than Chosen himself, right…?)
“Ooh that's a vicious one!” Mauve laughed at the two of spades, nudging the olive stick beside him. “Go on Momo!”
Momoiro groaned. “Come on, M.T., stop giving me more cards.” He shuffled through his ridiculously huge hand and placed an ace, to which Mauve gleefully responded with an unmatched card, giving yet another bunch for Momoiro to take into his hand. “I hate you.”
“Sure you do,” Mauve snorted, watching him place the two of diamonds on the deck. “Aww, I can't play you now.”
“Thank goodness for that.”
“Okay, can you guys rotate it over here now?” Chosen asked, starting to very much enjoy being pulled into the group of lunatics that have done stuff they probably shouldn't.
“Mm sure so you can put your last card down? I don't think so budd- oh come on Pebs!” Mauve pouted at the center going to him, the last member of the Game Squad placing the diamond queen, and Chosen playing the inevitable last card at last. “Dude! You had to do that, didnt you?”
Chosen just shrugged and leaned back in reply. “I won Mauve, fair and square.”
“You have to admit though, he’s good. You both should swing by more often.” ‘Pebs’ said, collecting the finished round.
“I missed this, so i'm sure to be coming, maybe drag Chosen around if he doesn't want to.”
“So mean, M.T..” Chosen replied. “But I doubt you'll have to do that often. I'm coming even if you don't.”
Momo gave a bored stare which Chosen was quickly learning was his resting face.“You just can't help but find more little ducklings, could you Mango?”
“What can I say? I'm just that good.”
Mauve rolled his eyes. “Speaking of duckies, how’s the other two?”
“Green and Purple? Purple's been good. Green's doing… not so well. In fact, I've been meaning to bring this up.” King sighed and picked up the new hand he was given. “I need advice.”
“Woah what's this? You need help parenting?” Mauve put a hand to his ear. “Did I just hear you right, or did I fall into an alternate dimension for a sec?”
Momo and Pebs slapped him from both sides. “Oi!”
“Not exactly parenting, but it does concern the little ankle biters in my house-” he turned to Chosen. “No offense.”
“None ta- WAIT WHA-”
“Anyways,” Mauve interrupted Chosen’s realization moment rather deftly. “What’s up with the grapes?”
“Stop giving my kids stupid names Sausage Rolls, that's my job. But there's something up with Green.”
“Ooh what's wrong with the kid? He looked fine when I saw him.” Mauve asked.
“Long story short, he had a big fight with his brothers over them goofing off during a special event for him.”
“Give us the medium version. I need more context.” Momo yawned, slapping Mauve, who was trying to peek at Momo’s cards.
“Green made this concert -in Minecraft, of course- and me and Purple were invited to watch. Things were good at the start, pretty normal, but then a silverfish -shut up Pebs- came over, tried taking over, and ended up taking the staff.”
“Pause.” Mauve sat up a little better. “A silverfish can do music? Why isnt that, like, awesome? I haven't seen one do anything like that, it's genius.”
“Genius or no, would you want a silverfish to walk up to your stand and start flipping hotdogs, so that nobody wants yours anymore?” Momo asked, half-lidded eyes twinkling in slight amusement at how easy it was to rile up Mauve. “Would you really appreciate that thing upstaging you? After all, a silverfish cooking food would be genius too, no?”
“... You have a point, that bugger is the next thing on my grill. M.T., continue.”
Mango complied, and safe to say, the rest of them were furious. At a lot of things. And besides knowing what happened, Chosen was feeling rather enraged too. King gave it in more detail than the summary meek little Purple had given him. He quickly learned that meek was not the best way to describe how she usually is, seeing that she’d beaten Green in many play spars in the week after. Green had won just as many, of course.
Momo was muttering, his face resembling a disgusted cat.
Mauve was shaking his head so hard it just might unscrew itself and go flying.
Pebs was surprisingly calm, lips twitching at certain points. (He looked like Dark when Chosen was telling a story Dark already knew.)
“Let me get this straight.” Momo sighed. “Green decided enough is enough and.. Straight up left? And is now living with you? And you're worried he might go off like you and Chosen did?”
“Yes, yes, and yes. I need to help him, but I fear that it might already be too late.”
Pebs looked curious. “Why would you say that?”
“Because,” Chosen started, looking at Mango before continuing. “He's been out on his own for long amounts of time, requested M.T. to teach him to make things, asked me to teach him more fight styles, and doesn't seem to mind the fact that he just cut off his siblings.”
“Not a single sign?”
“None.”
“Okay, but maybe he’s missing them, so he’s going on those walks? Maybe that's it?” Pebs said, yanking at his horns. They nearly came out of his hair. “I mean, I would do that myself. Just saying.”
“That's the thing.” King sighed, accepting the mismatch card Momo gave him. “He can come back from those walks looking excited, like he just discovered something important, then hides it away as soon as any of us face him. It gives me the feeling something’s going on, and not the good kind.”
“So what do you want us to do, watch him secretly? Become spies in disguise?” Mauve joked.
“Not exactly.” Chosen absentmindedly murmured. “But yes.”
“I'm in.” Mauve was acting like He was just promised a lifetime supply of letters in Calligrafitti. Momo rolled his eyes and muttered an agreement. Pebs just shrugged.
“Good.” King smirked. “He hasn't been out in the Outernet too much before all this, so if you can track any records, past or present, of him being associated with anyone, I’d like that.”
“Deal.” Mauve beamed.
Chosen tried opening his mouth, to ask mauve a favor regarding his skills, but failed and made a little grunt instead. He had to ask before they went off topic.
“I feel neglected.” Noooo Momo you took it off topic! Now Chosen would have to bring it up himself!
King laughed. “Patience, Momo. I will find something for you and Pebs to do. I just need info at the moment.”
“Unless you want a weird new invention,” Pebs grinned, “I don't mind watching you weirdos off the side. I’ll be emotional support mascot this time. Momo can be our Ken.”
“Shut up.”
“Nuh.”
A moment passed in the comfort of them just teasing each other, and Chosen learned that, yes, it was possible to burn water and Momo was willing to prove it in a heartbeat.
“So uhhh Chosen, i've been wondering.” Pebs started up when they all fell silent simultaneously. “How the stick did you manage to evade Rocket for as long as you have?”
“Huh?”
“Well, most targets usually get caught in days thanks to those four crazy biker guys i can bet are biologically unstable and OP. So how did you manage for uhhh-” Pebs scrunched up his nose. “Ten-ish months, I think?”
“It's been ten months?” Wow, time flies when you have no idea what you're doing. “I suppose jumping from place to place helps, but I did get caught once. Broke out though.”
“...That's it, As our squad's resident hacker and proud knucklehead” -Mango snorted and Pebs sniggered- “I officially name you part of our squad.” Mauve declared with a dramatic hand flourish in order for Chosen to shake hands and seal the deal.
Come on Chosen, you are The Chosen One, not The Chicken One. “If that's the case.. May I ask a favor?” Oh, great going. Lovely. Absolutely perfect.
“Ask away, ask away! I like doing things!” Mauve beamed. “What do you need?”
“Can you hack into Rocket? Or, uh, is that a little too much to ask of you?” Chosen hoped he didn't sound condescending.
“Oh no, of course I can do that! I’ve done it so much, one of their guy, the one with the glasses- ”
“Mauve. Focus.”
“Right, thanks Pebs. So what did you need? To find the reason they're chasing you?”
“I know the reason, I just want to know how they're tracking me. I've had at least ten shacks searched with me just barely escaping.” Chosen sighed, trying to decide a card to place down.
“Sure sure, gimme about two days to find a loophole in their firewalls.” Mauve grinned. “I’ll stop by with everything at Mango's sometime.”
“Thanks Mauve. You don't have to do this, y’know.” Chosen watched Momo's hand grow ridiculously huge once more.
“Nahh it's cool.” Mauve flashed an ominous grin. “I get to annoy the heck out of Rocket again. I can't wait.”
King:*leaves to grab more drinks from the store*
Mauve: lets take my corndog cart and scare him
Chosen: huh?
Momo: You'll see.
