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Little Courtney has a bit of a habit of disappearing at the Smosh office.
They never go anywhere dangerous or get into mischief, they just decide they’d rather be somewhere else.
This is way more common the younger they are, but with Shayne and Courtney spending a lot of time at the office over the years, the little has been found in all sorts of places.
At this point when someone finds them, it’s announced on the walkie, and whoever is supposed to have them is informed. Leading to them either being retrieved, or letting them stay where they are.
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The first time Courtney went missing at the new Smosh office it wasn’t much of a surprise.
They had already had the habit at a smaller scale at Defy and Mythical, so them wandering off wasn’t too alarming.
And it’s not that they want to run off, they just forget to ask, which is why Shayne doesn’t get upset. He trusts them to be good, and they always are.
Courtney is spinning slowly in their desk chair when they see Ian walk into his office.
Deciding he would be more fun than Shayne, they slide out of their chair and crawl over to his office, crawling in the doorway straight towards the small racetrack he has in his office.
Ian looks up when he hears a car hit the floor.
“Hi there cutie pie,” he says laughing as he stands up, “When did you get here?”
“Now!” they say excitedly, pushing a car around.
“Does your papa know you’re here?” he asks, walking towards his door.
They freeze, “Uhoh.” they mumble, and Ian laughs again.
He sticks his head out the door and yells towards Shayne’s desk “I have the baby!”
“Want me to come grab them?” he calls back
“I’ll keep them!” Ian answers, closing the door in an attempt to keep them contained.
Ian walks over to them, and hands them a brand new car from his desk.
“This is your car for the track.” he tells them proudly
Courtney beams at him and their new Mach 5 car.
“Thanks!” they chirp, placing the car on the track and pushing it.
He ruffles their hair and sits back at his desk to work, occasionally looking up to watch the little play with the cars.
Until eventually he calls Shayne and tells him he’s also gonna drop.
The man moves with his laptop to Ian’s office to watch both of them play with cars.
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With people starting to bring dogs to work and putting up baby gates, someone had decided to put one around the little area to keep the littles in.
This did not work on the only little it was even needed for.
Courtney found a way.
It was easy, actually.
They may be mentally about three years old, but they're still in an adult body so they simply stood up and walked over it. Leaving their peaceful nap space and wandering towards another baby gate, the social pod.
Courtney climbs over the fence again, giggling when Winnie runs up to them.
They sit down on the floor and let the puppy climb into their lap, happily petting her.
This is immediately noticed by everyone, and after checking if it was ok for them to stay with Winnie, Tommy calls Shayne.
“Your kid escaped again.” he says bluntly as Shayne answers the phone,
“Winnie?” he asks knowingly
“Yep. Erica said they can stay, so I’ll keep an eye on them until the meeting.” Tommy says
“Thank you.” Shayne says gratefully, hanging up.
Courtney ends up napping on the floor with Winnie on top of them, and the baby gates are taken down from around the little corner.
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As you’d expect, Courtney is most likely to wander to places with toys, so when Anthony comes back and has toys for Ian in his office, Courtney is bound to show up.
But unlike everyone else, he wasn’t informed about their proclivity for showing up unannounced.
Courtney had been napping on the Games set as their papa filmed one of the first few podcast episodes.
They wake up about half way through the episode, and look over at the table.
After watching for a while, Shayne winks at them and they giggle, wave at him, and wander away to find something more interesting to do.
First they walk over to the social pod to find Winnie, but she’s not there. So they try Ian’s office, but the door is closed.
They huff, sitting on the floor in front of Ian’s door when they spot a train set in Anthony’s office through his open door.
Courtney smiles, crawling into Anthony’s office and carefully pulling a train around the track.
After a few minutes they giggle quietly and Anthony looks up in alarm.
“When did you get here?” he asks concerned, walking over to crouch next to them.
“Ant!” they say happily, continuing to play with the trains.
He carefully pulls them away from the table, standing up with them in his arms.
“Where are you supposed to be? Where’s whoever is supposed to be watching you? Where’s your papa?” he asks concerned, walking out of his office towards Ian’s.
Courtney frowns, confused by Anthony’s reaction, tears welling in their eyes.
Anthony knocks on Ian’s door, and opens it when he’s called in.
“Why’re you crying, little dude?” Ian asks concerned, taking them from Anthony as they reach for him.
“They were just in my office all of a sudden.” Anthony explains concernedly, “No adult or anything. What’s the protocol for that?”
Ian laughs, placing them next to his race track, not able to hold them for very long.
He ruffles their hair as he turns to look at Anthony, “We forgot to tell you about the Court protocol,” he admits bashfully, checking the filming schedule.
“Court here is a little explorer, you can’t contain their intense need to wander.” he explains overly dramatic, successfully getting the little to giggle.
“They don’t get into trouble, they just like visiting people and their toys. So we usually just contact whoever should have them and either keep them or return them to where they came from.”
“And right now,” he says, turning to Courtney, “Your papa is filming, isn’t he?”
They nod, “Podcast” they confirm.
Ian smiles, turning back to Anthony. “So I just contact the director, and tell them I have the baby.” he explains, quickly texting Selena.
Anthony sighs, running a hand through his hair, “Thanks for the heads up.” he jokes, “I was worried”
“Sorry,” Courtney says genuinely, hugging his leg.
He laughs, patting their head, “Don’t worry, now I know you’re a little trouble maker, and I can plan accordingly.” he says and they giggle.
“Baby gates don’t work,” Ian tells them as they leave, “We all gave up.”
Anthony shrugs, “I’ll think of something.”
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It’s quite a bit later when Anthony is able to test his idea.
He is given responsibility over Courtney and he gives them a present.
“It’s a little sloth friend.” he explains, demonstrating how the slap bracelet in its arms has it grab onto their arm.
They grin, hugging him, “Thank you Ant!” they say excitedly, attaching the sloth to their wrist.
What they don’t know is that he had managed to program the sloth to tell him when they go through his doorway.
And it works, except it didn’t work.
The first few times he gets the alert and points them back towards the inside of his office.
For a while nothing happened and when he looked up to check on them, they were gone, but the sloth was sitting innocently on the train tracks.
Anthony laughs and a phone call comes through from Ian.
“You have Courtney?” he asks knowingly
“I figured out.” Courtney says proudly through the phone, breaking out into giggles.
“I told you they’re slippery,” Ian adds, also laughing.
He sighs, “You win, young wayfarer,” he jokes and they giggle again.
“Keep sloth?” they ask hopefully, “Like him.”
“He’s yours,” he assures them, “Next time we’re together and I’m not busy we can program him to do something else,”
“Thanks Ant! Bye!” they yell, audibly walking away from the phone.
Ian laughs, “I’m keeping them.” he states obviously, “See you at the meeting,”
He hangs up and Anthony sighs.
Little’s are too smart
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After the hide and seek video, Courtney had taken to wearing the Moose onesie around the office.
Today, Angela is supposed to be watching them, but when they look down to answer a work email, they crawl away.
Angela laughs and heads straight to the art department.
She steps over the baby gate and smiles.
Just as she expected, inside Moose’s bed are two sleeping figures.
Moose the dog and Courtney the Moose.