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“What is that.”
Lanolin flinches from her crouched position, where she was tending to the garden, and finds her mother, Reneigh the Sheep, glaring at her from the back entryway of their house.
“Um.” Lanolin smartly said. “What is what, ma’am?”
“Stand up.”
The younger sheep does exactly that, posture straight and hands to her side. Reneigh walks down elegantly from her original spot and examines her daughter under careful, critical eye.
“That.” She finally says.
Lanolin blinks, clueless. “What is it?”
Then she feels a finger jab into her stomach that makes her flinch back.
“That.” Reneigh sneers. “It seems that you’ve gained quite a bit of weight recently, darling.”
Has she? She hasn't noticed. Lanolin doesn't tend to look in the mirror often. With how much work is needed to keep the farm from collapsing—given that it was just the two of them—due to the amount of flora and vegetables, she hadn't deemed it important.
Her mother is clearly thinking the opposite.
She shakes her head with disappointment, “No no, this won't do at all. How are you supposed to find yourself a husband looking like this? This disgusting overweight body of fat…” The older sheep tuts with disgust. “No man would ever find this attractive enough to want you.”
…Was it really that bad? Lanolin attempts to examine her body with an equally critical eye her mother has. It didn't look bad. It just… looked like her.
The younger farmer places a hand on her belly. It was a bit bigger than average, yeah, but it wasn't anything serious. Her limbs didn’t look too out of place either. What was the issue?
“Lanolin.”
The sheep, quick as lightning, returns to her statue position and makes eye contact with her mother. Exactly as she is consistently told to do.
“This will not do.” Reneigh glares. “From now on, in order for you to lose dreadful weight, you will eat in limited portions. You shall also do more work for the farm, taking my position where it’s needed. I can see that doing the heavy work has its benefits.”
“...Is this not a little excessive, mother?” Lanolin meekly says. “I can’t tend to the farm all by myself-.”
“Darling,” Reneigh cuts in, a saccharine sweet smile on her face. “You want to get yourself a good husband for the future, yes?”
“...Y-Yes?”
“And you want to be successful in the future, make your mother proud, yes?”
“...Yes.”
“Then believe me when I say that no one likes girls with this.” She gestures to the younger sheep’s stomach once again with disgust. It was hardly visible through her overalls but if anyone were to have a keen pair of eyes like her mother, they were sure to notice. “I am only telling you this to help you. I do not wish to see your future jeopardized over this flabby mistake. Do you understand?”
Lanolin stiffly nods.
Reneigh smiles a bit more genuine. “Wonderful. This diet of yours will start tonight and you shall work tomorrow. Be sure to wake up bright and early.”
Lanolin didn’t eat dinner that night. Or the night after that. Or after. She wasn’t allowed to. Only one meal per day, breakfast being the most important meal of the day, so her mother says.
Her workload has doubled and soon she was taking care of the whole farm. She returned to the comforts of her home more and more exhausted each night, feeling like she could collapse at any moment.
She believed her mother’s words all the while.
Until she didn’t.
Frankly, Lanolin always knew in the back of her mind that the way her mother treated her wasn’t right. That perhaps what she’s been through in that house in Riverside wasn’t normal.
She was a smart girl. People often told her that back “home”.
“Surge, I know it was you who broke the door. Again.”
Case in point.
“WHAT?! Why ya always accusin’ me of breakin’ the damn door?!” Surge waves her hands wildly in exclamation. All Lanolin could do was sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose and gesture to the door.
“Surge, the door is emitting static because you used your electrokinesis on it.”
“...Have we checked if Stripes has any new powers lately?”
“Surge.”
“Look it’s fine, Dinnerbell!” Surge grins and wraps an arm around her shoulders.
“Not my name.” Lanolin deadpans.
“I’ll come up with a different one when you stop fitting the dollar.” The electric tenrec said. “Anyway, it’s fine. Some schmoe will come over and fix it like always, right? We got important superhero biz to do!”
“It’s “fit the bill”, not the dollar. And we’re not superheroes—or super ones anyway.” The sheep rolls her eyes.
…Fit the bill, huh?
When Surge first started using the nickname for her, she said that it was because Lanolin got “a lotta meat on her bones”. After that answer, the sheep had not-so quietly, quickly left the room to view herself in the mirror.
And… Yeah. She did fit the bill.
Despite Reneigh’s best efforts, it seems that her daughter had still acquired a bigger body type in the end.
Honestly, Lanolin only had an idea of how it happened. She was just… spending time with her friends and she was all happier for it. Not like she was any different. Hell, she might even be stronger for it.
She has friends, people who care about her, regardless of her size and she’s happier for it.
Serves you right, mother.
Lanolin and Surge enter the Neo Diamond Cutters meeting room and find Tangle and Whisper casually chatting. The two pause to share a smile with their leader. She smiles back, albeit small and reeking of exhaustion.
“Surge broke the door?” Whisper says in her naturally quiet voice.
All Lanolin does is just stare at her and the answer is received clearly.
“That case is still under review.” Surge cuts in. “There’s, uh, evidence left unexamined.”
“Good thing we’re not detectives then.” The wolf comments.
“Well, we’re not cops either.” Tangle said. “Unless we are…?”
“Definitely not.” Lanolin says, immediately. “I’m not about to stoop that low.”
“Honestly Stripes, shame on you for suggestin’ that.”
“Well, it’s not like I’d be THRILLED to be a cop!”
The room is filled with chatter and laughter as Lanolin files some paperwork. Whisper silently insists on helping her out as Tangle and Surge fill the silence with some lighthearted banter. The sheep guesses that after everything with Clean Sweep, she’s mellowed out a bit.
It's somehow better than any future Lanolin would think of when she was younger.
She has friends who, somehow, like her for who she is and not staying with her out of some obligation.
Even a girlfriend.
Oh yeah, turns out she was a lesbian. Suck it, mother.
“Hey, where is the little guy anyway?” Tangle asks.
“Eh, Drippy is in the workshop with Pinocchio and… Grease. Still gotta come up with a nickname for him.” Surge idly says, picking her ear with her pinkie finger.
“You know who Pinocchio is?” Whisper asks.
“Of course I friggin’ know who he is! He’s the wooden puppet thing with the long sch-.”
“Do NOT finish that sentence.” Lanolin grimaces. Tangle holds back a snort behind a fake disgusted face while the wolf just shakes her head. “His nose gets long when he tells a lie, not anything else.”
“I was close!”
Riveting conversations. And yet, Lanolin doubts she'd want it any different.
She has friends.
Oh, how this day will turn out to be in the end.
A knock is heard on the door which opens to reveal Jewel the Beetle. Did Lanolin mention that she's her girlfriend? No? Well, here she is.
“Hey, Lin?” Jewel says, looking oddly nervous. “Um, someone is here to see you.”
Now that rings an alarm in her head.
Lanolin hardly ever socialized before forming the team and no one ever socialized back aside from a red quokka she remembers. She’d plaster on a smile and say meaningless sweet nothings to strangers as if she were working retail. Who would bother keeping someone like that in mind?
No, there’s only one person she can think of who would want to see her for no one’s benefit but her own.
She nearly turns tail and asks Jewel to send her back out immediately but different words spills out of her mouth instead.
“Who is it?” As if she needed confirmation.
“She said she was your mother.”
The sheep’s heart nearly falls to her stomach and she nearly misses the way Tangle lit up at the opportunity of meeting her friend’s family.
“Really?! Oh, this is amazing!” Tangle shouts, almost vibrating from excitement. “I feel like hardly any of us actually get to know each other’s families!”
Whisper shrugs, “Never asked.”
“And I dunno if I have any, ya dingus.” Surge replies.
“Which is exactly why I never asked, I didn’t want to be insensitive! We’re friends with a lot of people who happen to not have parents.”
No one notices the way Lanolin goes stiff and slowly begins to look far off in the distance. Like she isn’t… here. Memories of a past life regarding a young sheep begin to reemerge, ones that were meant to stay in that past life. Ones that she’d wish to forget.
Now, they’re coming back in full force and she can’t breathe, she can’t go back to all that again, she can’t-!
No. No. Calm down. You can handle this.
As selfish as it may be, Lanolin doesn’t want any of them to see her. She does not want them to know.
“Lin? You okay?”
Lanolin blinks back into reality where she finds that any conversation has stopped in favor of looking at her with concern. Even Surge, though she doesn’t show it. Jewel in particular lost her nervous expression and held the most worry on her face for her.
She has to assure that it’s all for nothing.
“Let me go talk to her.”
“...Okay? Do you want me to come with-?”
“Alone. It won’t take long.”
The sheep leaves before anyone else can get a word in. She doesn’t know where to go yet, she just goes off in one direction before remembering that her mother is likely at the entrance to the organization.
She thinks she vaguely hears Whisper say something about how she knows somethings wrong but it’s fine. It will be.
Lanolin makes her way towards her beginning and end, finding her just standing politely near the elevator. She tries not to retreat to old habits when Reneigh notices her.
“Lanny, darling!” She smiles, all honey sweet and saccharine. “It’s so good to see you again! I see you made something of yourself after all this time.”
“Mother.” Lanolin simply replies. The one word alone burns hot on her tongue.
“Come now Lanny, surely you have more to say than that.”
It’s getting easier to speak around the lump in her throat. “Not really. Why are you here?”
Reneigh innocently tilts her head. “Is it wrong for a mother to want to see her child?”
“After said mother left her daughter at the mercy of zombots and hasn’t bothered contacting her since? Especially after the Restoration has been attacked and nearly destroyed on multiple occasions?” Lanolin deadpans, just barely holding back the anger from coloring her words. “Yeah. It is.”
Has she mentioned that? That her mother saw an opportunity to escape by using her daughter as a scapegoat? No? Well, now she has.
Finally, the facade falls off the older sheep’s face.
“Very well.” Reneigh says, stone faced. “The farm has been getting more and more harder to maintain since you left. I’m sure you heard of the attack by those two… What were they now? Zeti, as the news calls them?”
“Yes.”
“Well, they attacked when we were supposed to harvest the crops.” Reneigh informs. “Those two monsters destroyed everything. I need you back, Lanny.” She seems sincere.
Thankfully, Lanolin knows better.
“The Restoration works day in and day out to provide supplies all across the world. Even helping rebuild areas that were destroyed in previous attacks.” Lanolin recites, almost completely feigning nonchalance. “I would know because I’ve been working side by side with them on doing so.
“So I know that’s not the actual reason you’re here as I’ve made sure that Riverside received the help it needed. So allow me to ask again.” The team leader said. “Why. Are you here.”
Reneigh sneers, “Tch. Where are your manners?” She crosses her arms. “Fine. It is about the farm. However, I have not been as… successful in selling as of late. The traders that come to town won’t take anything I have to offer.”
“...What does this have to do with me?”
The older sheep looks her straight in the eye. “I need you to come back with me. If we can finally find you a good suitor-!”
“Hard pass. I’m staying here.”
Her mother balks, surprised, “W-What?!”
“I said I’m not coming with you. I’ve got more important things to do than to worry about you not making money.” The younger sheep rolls her eyes. “You’ll just have to think of something else.”
"Darling, I don’t think you understand.” Reneigh says, nervously. “If I do not make enough then-.”
“Then the farm will need to go to someone else, yadda yadda, I know.” Lanolin recites, her choice of words definitely taken out of Surge's book. She shrugs, “Good. Someone more qualified can take over.”
“Now now, dear, don’t be like that! I’m sure if we-!”
“I should also mention that I have a girlfriend. Not interested in any suitors.”
Reneigh blinks. “You… what?”
“Yeah. She’s very beautiful. Wish you could meet her but I also don’t want you ever stepping within her vicinity.” She shrugs again. “Shame.”
“You…” Reneigh starts, growing anger becoming clear in her voice. “You would choose this over your own mother?! After all I’ve done for you!”
“After-? After all you’ve done?!” Lanolin does a double take, matching her mother's outburst, “Actually, yes, after all you’ve done I would choose this over you! You, who left me starving night after night and forced me to work on the farm alone because you didn’t like the way I looked!”
“I was trying to help save your future! And clearly it didn’t work.” She growls. “You ruined your chances for a happy life all for what?! To be a shameful and unhelpful whelp who couldn’t even save her village!” Reneigh screamed. “Now here you are, a disgusting mess of meat! What did you gain from this aside from mass?!”
Lanolin glares, red hot anger spiking her veins. “Everything you never gave me. A happy present.”
SMACK!
The younger sheep suddenly stumbles backwards, a palm up to her forcibly reddened cheek. Her glare falters from the action and suddenly she’s back on the farm and she feels like crying. She can feel Maggie shake with rage in her wool but she doesn’t want her to be the next subject of her mother’s wrath-.
Reneigh sneers. “You disgraceful little-.”
Whatever she was going to say has been cut off by a bushy tail grabbing her arm and lurching her forward.
“What the-?”
CRACK!
Reneigh falls to the floor from the attack.
In hindsight, the tail was an obvious indication to who it could be for Lanolin.
It was Tangle. And she just broke her mother’s nose.
…Holy shit, Tangle just broke her nose.
“GRAH, YOU-! YOU UTTER BARBARIAN!” Reneigh seethes, muffled as she attempts to cover her bleeding nostrils.
“Be thankful it’s just your nose.” Tangle growls which, holy shit, Lanolin didn’t think she was capable of that level of anger.
She feels a pair of hands on her shoulder and turns to see Jewel looking at her sheepishly. “We may have been spying a bit on your conversation. I wanted to leave you alone but…” She now looks towards her mother with utter disdain. “I’m glad we didn’t.”
Whisper and Surge walk out from behind the beetle and pull up the rear of Tangle. The wolf has her mask on and her group of wisps aside from cyan surround her, looking quite mad, as she walks towards the failure of a mother. The tenrec simply cracks her knuckles, electricity spiking for a moment. It’s a little frightening, she’ll admit, she’s used to Surge having a snide comment or two spill out of her.
Jewel leaves her side to address Reneigh, “Hello, Lanolin’s mother.” Tangle grabs the sheep with her tail and has her face the beetle.
“Unhand me this instant!” Reneigh demands.
Whisper says, calmly, “Quiet. Or I’ll make you.”
“You wouldn’t dare-!"
BANG!
There is now a hole in the wall next to her head. She clams up immediately afterward.
Whisper lowers her wispon. “Still think I won’t?”
Reneigh offers nothing in response.
The director glowers at her, her wings flared, “After witnessing the interaction between you and Lanolin, for the good of everyone residing here, I hereby announce that you are banned from ever stepping foot in the Restoration; effective immediately.”
Reneigh looks shocked, blood trickling down her chin, “What?! You can’t do this! Who do you think you are?!”
She gets close to her face and states so simply but so clearly, “Jewel the Beetle. Director of the very organization you stand in and beloved girlfriend of the only good and very best thing you ever gave this world.”
Reneigh stands there shocked, mouth gaped, before an electrifying hand is placed on her shoulder. She turns to see Surge grinning, eyes glowing, and electricity crackling on her palms.
“Surge? If you could please take her to a nearby hospital to treat her nose?”
The tenrec chuckles, “With pleasure.”
Reneigh says nervously, “W-Wait, can we please just-?”
With a sonic boom, the two disappear up the elevator… without the use of the elevator.
Jewel sighs. Normally, she’d be worried that Surge won’t be careful when dragging another person along in her use of her “shortcut”. Now? Well, no one would be able to pin it on her if another bone mysteriously breaks, right?
Tangle makes a show of dusting off her hands, “Good riddance.” She looks to the back of her, “You alright, Lano-?”
Oh, Lanolin isn't there anymore.
Whisper and Tangle offer to go look for her but Jewel turns them down. She knows where to go.
“Lin?”
Jewel finds her at her "getaway” spot. When exiting the Restoration, specifically from the west entrance, there’s a forest that has a particular field of trees which were the sheep’s favorite.
Cherry blossom trees.
She sees the sheep sitting on a log under a tree by the lake. Jewel flies on over to join her. Maggie is nuzzling her cheek and warbles a greeting to the director once she notices her presence. She smiles at her in return.
Lanolin doesn’t acknowledge her at first. Then she notices that the beetle is looking at her reddened cheek, though it’s lost most of its color. She covers it immediately.
“I’m okay. I’ve had worse.”
“...From badniks and such.” Jewel agrees. “But not from your mother.”
She scoffs, “It’s not the first time.”
Jewel squints, “Is that really supposed to make me feel better?” If anything, the new information makes her blood boil even more. She hopes Surge breaks something extra now.
…
“I just knew.” Lanolin says suddenly.
Jewel blinks and perks her head up. She stays silent.
“I knew that she would try something after not hearing what she wanted to hear. I didn’t have any hope that maybe she changed after all this time or wanted me for who I am instead as some method to get rich and achieve her own dreams through me.” She hangs her head down low, “Doesn’t make it hurt any less.”
The smaller mobian suddenly stands atop the log, “Well, if she can’t see how wonderful you are, she’s as blind as she is heartless!”
Lanolin feels two gloved hands cup her cheeks tenderly and gently yet firmly turn her head towards Jewel.
“We all love you for you! Tangle, Whisper, even Surge and Kit!” Jewel states wholeheartedly. “Me too, especially. Your mother was wrong when she said that. That you look awful and that you take up more space than you should. I’m- I’m paraphrasing but still!
“I love you so much, Lin. When I say that, I always mean every part of you. How you look is a part of you. I love that too. If she can’t see how worthy of love you are, then she’s just another idiot in a long line of them we’ve seen.”
The sheep's mouth begins to wobble. “I… Jewel…”
Jewel plants a kiss on her forehead. “I mean it. I love you, just the way you are.”
The dam breaks.
Lanolin begins to cry into her shoulder. For the first time in a long, long while, she sobs. She breaks. She mourns for what could’ve been.
She lets herself feel all the things she kept shut and locked in her chest and it all spills out in one big broken mess.
Jewel comforts her throughout and stays with her.
Everything will be okay.