Chapter Text
Deep cleaning the ship’s interior was one of the many rituals that Korvo took time of his day to complete. It wasn’t supposed to be that way but was meant to be a team effort. When the team leader originally proposed the idea of shared responsibilities, he knew that getting his team to cooperate–especially with chores–would be no easy task. All four of them had ended up getting themselves into trouble numerous times before due to their neglect, but it was as if they never learned to be better, and that was infuriating to Korvo.
They all knew the risks of not maintaining the ship’s cleanliness or their own duties for that matter–they’d witnessed them first hand before! If they wanted a painful death of radiation, that was fine with him, and he wouldn’t tell them, or himself, otherwise.
A bead of sweat traveled the shlorpian’s temple as he worked a stain on the metal floor. Two of the buttons on his ceremonial garbs were undone to allow himself some breathing air. The wet sponge that he pressed onto the stain struggled against his strong grip. His eyebrows, or lack there of, were furrowed into a focused frown and his jaw flexed as he bit down on his teeth. Korvo dunked the sponge into the solution of cleaner and wrung the excess liquid from the pores.
He eventually moved on whenever the stain refused to pick up from the metal though a sense of failure and annoyance made itself present to Korvo. He quickly distracted himself with an easier stain not from that one, but didn’t focus much when the color began to vanish. Curiosity of whatever his team was up to struck him, then doubt as he realized their daily schedule usually consisted of sitting on their asses, eating nasty ass concoctions, doing jack shit, and being as loud as possible while doing said ‘jack shit’.
This time, however, was different. Since he had entered the ship in a fit, it seemed like he was the only one home. The usual loud arguments, trampling, and crashing that would take place downstairs ceased not long before his disappearance, and he grew suspicious. He realized the lack of distractions that day, too, as he worked. Whether it was an argument between the replicants that needed sorted, the pupa asking for something that he definitely wasn’t going to get(that was JK-Sevens’ job), Terry, who for whatever reason would follow Korvo only to sit there as ‘emotional support’, he always got distracted by someone.
Korvo could admit that the silence was kind of nice. It was easier to have thoughts, hell, he was ahead of his own schedule and making time! A mindless smile curled onto the shlorpian’s face but it quickly dispersed when he came to a realization. Him being able to focus on his tasks with little to no distractions was never a good thing, it meant trouble
Korvo lifted the wet sponge from its place on the ground and tossed it back into the bucket. He then hesitated as he kept an ear out for any commotion indicating his team's whereabouts. It never came, of course, Korvo was met with silence, and his anxieties increased.
“Bloody hell…” He seethed at the empty ship before wiping the wet solution from his hands onto the fabric of his ceremonial garbs. He walked into the chute of the ship then down both flights of stairs when he entered the living room. Unsurprising to him now, the room was empty without a trace of life apart from himself. His head began its bubbling as it did daily, on the verge of gooblering.
“Maybe they texted me and I just missed it!” His accent grew thicker with his anxieties. A cell phone was retrieved from the inside of his robes and turned it on to reveal he had no new notifications. “Shlorp.” The kitchen was the next room he entered and the piles of dirty dishes from that morning’s breakfast waited eagerly under his gaze. Usually, he would be the one to do the dishes and quickly as a matter of fact; he was a cleaning machine! Korvo glanced away from the sink. Now wasn’t the time for him to get distracted with chores and other side tasks. He peeked into the dining room, also empty, before peering outside into the backyard.
“What the fuck?!” The team leader stormed onto the patio where he was quickly blinded by the scorching sun, causing him to raise a hand above his face. Mini lavender gooblers pranced from the top of his head onto the ground in a frenzy. The usually spacious green backyard he came to know and love due to its beautiful simplicity was transformed.. The ‘getaway summer vacation’ that seemingly came out of nowhere was the new and Korvo hated it. Spring still had some time, damnit! Why couldn’t they appreciate it while they still could? Summer was way overrated anyway. The only good thing about it was when he and Terry got to vacation inside of their hotel suite inside the Wooden City.
The blue shlorpian looked in disbelief at the new addition of sand laid out over the once flourishing grass, the whole ass swimming pool from grey gods know where, and his team, who were clearly in celebration of their sudden impulsive actions.
A few lounge chairs were placed not far from the pool, buried in the sand. Terry laid in one of them with his sunglasses pulled down over his eyes. Korvo could see the thick goops of sunscreen slapped across his face and the replicants’ own, even from across the yard. In Terry’s arm, the pupa laid asleep with a small satisfied smile on his face as he dreamed of puffs.
The replicants were inside the pool doing their own thing. Jesse laid relaxed inside of her unicorn floatie. She had on her sunglasses that matched with her replicator’s own while wearing a swim suit that was similarly patterned like her dress. As she floated, she talked to Yumyulack, who swam around the pool, occasionally pushing his sister and laughing when she scolded for it.
Korvo rolled his eyes at the thought of his team wasting time on such a thing as he walked down the steps. It didn’t take long for him to be noticed by his husband first. Terry had a dirty martini in his left hand that he occasionally sipped on, the opposite he was using to keep Pupa from slipping. He gave his glass to JK-Sevens, who carefully grabbed it with a few happy beeps, before waving eagerly at the ship expert “Hii, Korvy!”
Jesse and Yumyulack looked over at their approaching team leader and offered their own greetings. “Is this what you all have been doing while I’ve been working all day on the ship?! Where did you even get all this bullshit, Terry?” The accused shlorpian sat up from his position with Pupa still held right in his grasp as he defended himself “Bullshit? Babe, this is art,” He took a smug sip of his beverage “even though summer started forever ago, none of the pools are open. I just wanted a little tan, okay?! Plus, the replicants thought it was a good idea too.”
Said replicants made eye contact with each other before breaking it again in guilt. Yumyulack backed up from his spot behind Jesse and reached for something out of Korvo’s view. Jesse remained floating peacefully, no longer paying attention to her family’s growing tensions. “Dude, chill out. We just wanted to have fun and you’re being a total douche.” The pale blue replicant grumbled and sprayed spurts from the water gun, not floating not long before, directed towards the back of his replicator’s head.
Korvo’s attention quickly moved as he began to sputter from that sudden assault. An onslaught of inaudible curses and complaints left from his mouth before he scrubbed away the moisture with his sleeve “Summer hasn’t even started yet, you morons! It doesn’t start for another few weeks, I’m still the only one doing their job, and no one even told me where the fucking swimming pool came from!” The ship expert threw his hands out in exaggerated frustration.
“Ooh… about that…” Terry slightly grimaced as he reached under the lounge chair “Also,” He continued “what do you mean ‘it’s not summer’?! Of course, it is! Why do you think Yum and Jess are home and not at school.”
The pupa specialist continued to maneuver his hand underneath the lounge chair below him until they found purchase on whatever he was looking for, judging by the obvious perk of his face. Terry attempted to, and somehow succeeded, at keeping Pupa snug in his other arm without waking him. A few stirs came from the supercomputer, however, when he leaned back into his chair, but quickly fell back asleep as Terry snuggled his cheek onto the top of his head. Terry then reluctantly handed over the evidence to his husband, who quickly snatched it from his grip.
“Got the pool from this. Neat, right?~” He attempted as well as he could to read the abbreviated tag on the side of the ray gun with failure “No clue what it says though… bummer.” Korvo scoffed as he placed the piece of alien technology inside of the interior pockets of his ceremonial garb, afterwards reaching to grab the resting Pupa. He ignored Pupa’s blabbers of confusion and complaints as he was pulled into his arms “I thought it was some stupid Earth holiday, like, i don’t know, president’s day? Do you two get off on President’s Day?”
The siblings, who had gone back to their earlier activities, turned back to their replicators before sharing looks at one another–one of humor and another of disgust–.
“Uhm… no?”
“I have to Miku binder Thomas Jefferson!”
Jesse beamed despite her confession and the looks of confusion she’d received. Their team leader looked around as he tried to make sense of the joke he was missing out on “Who– doesn’t matter– “ He turned back to Terry “I also thought I told you, in particular, that you weren’t allowed to mess with anything you don’t understand! That’s how you get killed!”
“I do know how to use that one! See? It worked just fine without any consequences!” Terry’s whines and disapproval were ignored by Korvo as he began walking back towards the house again.