Chapter Text
Ishan was confused.
It was a new feeling for him, and he didn’t like it, not at all and quite frankly he found it almost insulting to his own intelligence. He was a reporter and a co-founder of Q News on paper and TV, truly a man of many talents.
And yet, he was stuck.
It was nothing of consequence or specifically important for any reason, but it was something he hadn’t thought about before and that never happened. Not to news reporter Khatarnak Ishan, who could find the scoop in anything whether it be real or fabricated. It felt like his reputation was on the line and he couldn’t have that.
“How do we work?”
He blurted out, unprompted and rushed as the sounds of clashing swords was brought to a stop. Forgetting the practice match he was interrupting, the reporter nervously made eye contact to Generalissimo Aldo who raised an eyebrow at him. The man hadn’t moved from his position of striking Tina’s sword who also turned at Ishan’s sudden question. At their combined silence, he rushed to explained himself.
“I was at the Regime and Haiper asked something about clashing dynamics-”
“Dynamics?” Tina tilted her head.
“Yes,” Ishan rambled, “Just with all of our status and stuff, there’s a lot of Alphas and Omegas and usually there’s a ‘head’ role – Vegetta’s obviously the Alpha one, but who’s the head of the Omegas?”
“Did Haiper ask that?”
Aldo asked annoyed, sheathing his sword while Tina copied him silently as the two warriors approached Ishan with their full attention.
“He should know better then-”
“I don’t think he meant it like that!”
Ishan hurried to interrupt, his halo glowing brightly above him at the conviction in his words, “We were talking about other stuff, and the question was just a result of that, but it made me think, y’know?”
“Do we really need one?” Tina hummed curiously, “I think we’re doing pretty fine without one.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Ishan agreed quietly, his halo flickering softly at his tone before nervously tucking his hands back into the front pocket of his jumper. With Aldo’s strong dislike of the Regime, he knew he wasn’t going to get any answers out of the two of them, but the question was taking up too much space in his head. It needed to be spoken into the world and with it, Ishan could start his investigation properly. Already the strong itch of writing in a notebook was taking hold, mentally remembering Tina’s answer.
“What do you think, Aldo?” He still couldn’t help but ask.
“If anyone’s ‘head’ of anything, I have no idea.” The Generalissimo shrugged indifferently, “We don’t rule by status, not like that.”
Which meant that two people so far believed that there wasn’t a head Omega.
“I wonder about the others?” Ishan mumbled to himself, his mind going distant as he recalled where everyone else was. He turned away from Aldo’s and Tina’s practice match, missing their quiet giggles and murmurings as Ishan found himself disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke.
His room materialised around him, newly furbished and decorated as per his leader’s orders. He quickly rummaged through his chests, swiftly organising his notebooks by dates until he found an empty one that would suit his needs. For he had an inkling in the back of his mind that each of the members would have vastly different opinions on who was not only the ‘head’, but of the status of their own family.
Which Aldo was right about; status and dynamics didn’t affect the household, it rarely played a part in anything if at all. Roles and responsibilities were split based of skills and hobbies that people already had, not from any preconceived notions of duties from Omegas, Betas and Alphas alike. It just different and the Regime had a similar mindset.
In fact, most of the islanders probably shared the same opinions on it.
And that wasn’t including the fact that many of the inhabitants were either hybrids, immortals, or vessels of some kind that vastly impacted the role in which their status even impacted them. The very few humans that were on the island were noticeably either given blockers from the Federation or were simply unable to engage in whatever status they were to begin with.
Ishan’s mind drifted to Katie and her unknown origins, she lacked scent, direction at any given moment and a strange cluelessness to pack dynamics that made her bizarrely stand out within any group she was in. She was uniquely different. And on an island filled with personalities, it was strange.
But she was just one example of many, and Ishan didn’t have time to get distracted by the many interesting questions that would no doubt pop up throughout his current investigation. He needed answers, he needed progress, he needed results.
With an assured nod to himself, Ishan grabbed the blank notebook and tucked it into his backpack, making sure that he had everything he needed before heading off downstairs into the mansion’s hallway. He could vaguely make out the distance voices of Juan, Roier and Molly shouting about something from the kitchen area before a light humming caught his attention in the chaos.
He lightly jogged down the stairs, following the soft noise that he discovered belonged to Foolish. The naturally tall and never-imposing figure of the shark-totem hybrid that somehow managed to tuck himself in the corner of the room. He was crouched down at one of the communal chests, shifting through materials with a backpack by his side and three more slung over his shoulder. Ishan watched quietly amused as Foolish effortlessly moved through the chests, never needing to move too far as his long limbs reached for the further compartments. Even his shark tail moved to and from, occasionally flicking open a chest before his clawed hand reached for materials that were undoubtedly being used for a project.
It was one of the rare moments where the totem was silent, focused on his own world and not instantly joining in on the chaos around him. Though as Ishan turned his attention back to the rest of the family, he could see why, their rapid Spanish left little to intervene and the reporter himself was still on the basics of basics; he knew how to say hello, thanks and goodbye.
But he didn’t mind, not at all.
How could he feel anything other than fondness, when watching what looked to be Molly and Roier teasing Juan about his uniform. The two of them were poking and prodding at his purple shirt with Molly laughing loudly and Roier just as loud in his own wheezes. It was all in good fun and Juan’s own little giggles were proof of that. The three of them were running around the kitchen table, lost in their own conversation while Foolish moved behind them in the background.
Watching them all interact together settled something in Ishan’s body; a peaceful feeling of content washed over him. He gripped the straps of his backpack and made his way to the table, barely making it a few steps before a warm body was pressed against him.
“Ishan!” Roier proclaimed his name loudly, wrapping an arm around him, his fangs flashing as brightly as the grin that grew on his face. “You’re up early today, huh?”
“Morning!” Molly waved at him.
“Good morning!” Juan joined from over the table.
Even Foolish waved a hand in greeting, making sure to shoot him a small smile before going back to his rummaging.
“Morning, everyone.” Ishan spoke warmly, “I just had a quick question I wanted to ask everyone.”
“Oh, investigating?”
Molly leaned on the back of one of the kitchen’s chairs, her eyes alight in curiosity while Juan made a noise of intrigue.
“What’s the question, my friend?” Roier squeezed his shoulder, gently guiding him towards the dinner table while the others all huddled closer together.
Ishan took in a quick breath, “I guess, it’s more of a two-part question actually, but I wanted to know what you guys thought of about status and maybe who you think the head omega is here?”
A pause.
“Ah?”
“What kind of question-”
Foolish’s wheezing laughter could be heard in the background.
“Maybe Molly is head omega?” Roier’s voice carried over the others, “She’s the oldest.”
“No, no! I’m young and head omega is the partner of the head alpha.”
“Oh, true!” Juan jumped in, “And we all know who Vegetta’s special friend.”
He stretched out the last word, dramatically turning to face the back of the totem who had yet to even acknowledge the question. But Foolish only laughed and shook his head in clear amusement, lost to his own hiccupping wheeze that pulled out chuckles from the rest of them. Even Ishan had to stifle his own similar laugh to not get lost in the humour of it all, instead channelling all his focus on getting his notebook out – ready to write.
“Yeah, but Foolish isn’t an Omega.” Molly added after a moment of contemplation.
“So, then it’s you!” Juan proclaimed.
“It’s not me!”
The trio quickly escalated into a light-hearted argument, shouting and pointing with reasons that steadily made no sense. However, being the diligent reporter that he is, Ishan jotted down all their main reasonings that seemed to be a collective consensus amongst them.
The head Omega had to be partner of the head Alpha or that the very least, somehow who balanced out Vegetta. They also had to be old.
Molly was adamant that it wasn’t her and that in of itself left only a few other Omegas to consider. But even they wouldn’t meet the criteria age wise or balance Vegetta.
Did they really not have a head Omega?
“I mean, does it matter if we have one or not?” Foolish’s soft voice startled Ishan, almost dropping his book before looking up into the familiar emerald eyes of the totem. Not realising that Foolish was gently steering them away from the dining area and into his room with his tail lightly pressing against his legs.
“I guess I’m more curious, I mean on paper it shouldn’t make sense that we all work together so well.”
“Because of our status’, right?”
“Yeah, but I know about the species and stuff; it changes things. I was just stuck on it cause Haiper brought it up, they have this whole structure and system to make sure that no one oversteps and then he asked me about ours.”
Ishan stared down at his writing in embarrassment, “And I couldn’t tell him anything; I don’t like not knowing.”
“I don’t either.” Foolish moved away from him, casually sitting on the ground only a few metres away from him yet still with his tail wrapped around Ishan’s legs. It was oddly comforting and the reporter found himself sitting down to match, resting against the large tail and tucking his knees against his chest while propping his book up.
“I mean it doesn’t really matter.” Ishan mumbled, “Vegetta’s the king of The North and everyone already listens to him, and we do have the second in commands too.”
“Deluxe and plus, plus!” Foolish cheered.
Ishan chuckled, “Yes, very important roles.”
“So?”
Foolish stretched out the word dramatically, bring his tail closer and subsequently Ishan himself too as the reported groaned. “So, I don’t know why I’m still stuck on this!”
The totem shrugged, “Well, you don’t like not knowing, so keep investigating,” He rested on the back of his palms, “Find the answer that suits that little head of yours and case closed!”
“I guess, but is there really a point? Molly is the only one it could be and she’s saying it’s not her.”
“And are you satisfied with that answer?”
“No.”
“Then keep going, work backwards, ask different questions. You mentioned the different status thing, so ask how the others view it. If everyone views it differently, then of course no one’s going to claim that they’re the ‘head’.”
“Yeah.” Ishan slowly nodded in understanding as Foolish’s words settled into his mind, already mapping out the questions he wanted to ask. He should’ve considered the added aspect of origins and how it would’ve affected what made someone a head Omega. A human would see it different then a cat hybrid and vice versa. Molly and Juan pointed out age whereas Roier was adamant on the balancing out aspect and while neither cancels out the other, it would be good to separate everyone’s responses. To ask about how they view it specifically, if their species had any influence and how they were raised.
He’s definitely going to need more notebooks, but Ishan would be lying if he said the inner stirrings of journalism was hot on his heels. He was practically vibrating with excitement, chucking his notebook quickly into his backpack before racing outside to follow up with the others still in the dining area.
“Thanks, Foolish!”
Ishan yelled behind him.
Missing the pleased purr of the totem who just helped a younger pup.