Chapter Text
Silence was ideal for Joey. It meant peace and quiet, the perfect atmosphere for relaxing. One might think the opposite when hearing of the small pink cockroach’s history, believing him to be an instigator of chaos. Joey much preferred the term ‘strategist’, thank you very much.
Everything he executed with his associates was organised with precision and cunning, designed to hit where it hurt with the element of surprise. He planned everything meticulously beforehand, since being caught off-guard was the last thing he’d ever want to experience again.
Which was why when a sharp, persistent and incessant buzzing echoed throughout the house he called home, he snapped awake almost immediately in sheer rage.
What the fuck did Oggy bring into the house, was the first thought that came into his mind as he sat up from the sardine fish tin he and his associates used as a bed.
The noise -he refused to call it a sound, it wasn’t enough to describe his immediate hatred for it- came from his right. His heterochromatic gaze shot to the entrance of the vent.
It was irritatingly high-pitched, rattling his eardrums with continuous rhythmic beats that made him want to throw a brick through the vent.
This was not the first time something annoying and utterly unsuitable for the house was brought under its roof. Joey had recalled snails, moths, ostriches, bears, snakes, and many more unspeakable horrors that somehow invited themselves into the house. Some of which were even brought in by the lazy couch-ridden blue cat that owned it.
Did Oggy not have common sense, was something Joey had been trying to figure out for what felt like years. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t, was the roach’s ultimate answer.
Gripping the cold side of the fish tin, he stood up on the mattress and turned to his left. To his utter disbelief, both Marky and Dee Dee were sleeping peacefully as if there wasn’t a war going on outside that threatened to destroy Joey’s eardrums.
Furious, he hopped off the bed and strode over to the vent covers before yelling out with sheer rage. “Oggy shut the FUCK up—”
Upon receiving no response and instead the continuation of noise, Joey finally peered down into the living room.
The sight he saw only angered him more. The living room was as normal as it could be, with the furniture in place on its red carpet, or hanging on the periwinkle coloured walls that had mini airplanes on the wallpaper. But what was not normal was the small potted plant on the yellow tea table. Joey had seen this room countless times, and never once had there been a plant on that table.
Oggy was nowhere to be seen, however he was recently in the room, as seen with how the lights were turned on. Upon closer inspection, the plant appeared to be a small tree of some sort, one Joey couldn’t identify, yet was the source of the grating noise.
“What the actual fuck,” Joey rubbed his eyes. Clearly more awake now thanks to the disruption, he immediately crossed out the tree as the perpetrator. Something in there was the source.
Well, that would be easy to handle.
He walked to the back of the vent and grabbed a roll of duct tape stolen from Oggy’s stationery cabinet.
The plan was simple: find the source of the noise, tape it to shut it up, and remove it. Simple and easy.
Marky and Dee Dee had sat up from the bed now, likely having been woken up by his earlier yell.
“Joey, are you-”
He ignored Marky’s question and jumped out of the vent with the duct tape in hand. The tree was not too far placed from the vent entry itself, and Joey easily fell past the leaves to land precisely on a thick branch of the tree.
He was met with a small yellow insect perched on the same branch, reading a small magazine as her transparent wings fluttered behind her. Upon noticing him, she looked up, and her wings stopped flapping. There. That was the source of the noise.
Joey had no patience for pleasantries. “You. Get out.”
“My, that’s quite a way to say hello.” The insect was small, even shorter than him when Joey was considered small for a cockroach. How dare she have the audacity to toy when she should be leaving for causing such disruption, she was not welcome here-
“Get out of my house,” Joey repeated, already reaching to pull his tape loose. “You are causing a disruption with your noise, and I want you to leave.”
“Do you own the house?”
Technically Oggy owned the house, but that’s not important here. “On behalf of the majority of residents, you’re evicted.” Joey pulled the tape free from its roll, ready to tie her up if he had to. “Get out.”
“No need to get so forceful,” the insect assured, putting her magazine down. “Why don’t we talk this over with a cup of tea?”
“—and then she taped you?”
“What do you think?”
“It’s just a question!”
“Shut up and get the scissors, Dee Dee.”
Expression twisting with rage, Joey glared at the wall of the vents as he sat on the base of fish tin. If looks could kill, the wall would have fallen flat and crumbled to dust already.
Outside the vents, the insect-sounding buzzing droned on as Dee Dee’s footsteps faded into the distance after he jumped out of the vent cover. Marky slowly unwrapped a layer of duct tape binding Joey’s arms and wings against his body. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“The bitch taped me,” Joey seethed. “How can someone do that? I’m taller than her. I should have taped her!”
Marky chuckled softly as he peeled off another layer of tape constricting his friend. “Taller doesn’t mean more likely to win a duct tape competition, Joey.”
“Shut it, Marks. Where the hell is Dee Dee and the scissors?”
“Hold on, I’m coming!” The blue and orange roach climbed back into the vent with a pair of Oggy’s green scissors. With Marky’s assistance, the four layers of duct tape finally fell away and liberated Joey from the restraints.
“Finally,” Joey stretched his arms and wings with a growl. He clenched his fists, glaring at the entrance of the vent that led into the living room. “I’m not finished with that horrible noise-maker. I’m gonna burn that tree down if it gets her out of our house-”
“Noise-maker?” Marky tilted his head to the side, pink eyes blinking in confusion.
“Yeah, the bitch that taped me,” Joey shot back, crossing his arms as he paced around the vents, trying to think. Thinking always kept his mind occupied, coming up with a plan will surely distract him from the non-stop assault on his ears. “Alright, we’ve driven Oggy out of his house before, how do we get her out?”
“Do you mean the cicada?”
The pink roach gave Marky fingerguns. “YEAH! Cicada! That’s our target!” Joey made a palm-fist tap, grinning as an idea came into mind. “I know just the thing…”