As the dawn crept up, Asmo was alone at his bedroom coffee table. He’d spent the last several days giving up his precious work hours. But it was worth it. One more all nighter away from a finished project.
Miniatures and paint pots strewn across the surface. It had been a long day, and a longer night, but it was no time for him to take a break. He’d been up for over 40 hours, but his masterpiece was at hand.
Standing triumphantly, he took to his feet exclaiming proudly: “After 243 work hours I’ve finally done it! A full regalia of dæthmarch omegarangers, complete with harpies, orbital drop cannons and-”
He was interrupted by the bellowing abyssal roar of Gilgamesh, the vampire fledgling, and newfound bane of Asmodeus’s life. Gilgamesh swooped in and landed on the table deftly. The neonate thrashed around, flinging miniatures across the room and scooping a handful into his mouth.
Without breaking eye contact, Gil gnashed them in his teeth and lept out of the room in a single bound.
“-and deathmenders,” Asmo stated flatly. “I JUST finished that two thousand point army.”
Looking at his paint pots he shuddered. “Hades, this paint is not food safe is it? I’m going to get blamed when that kid pukes, aren’t I?”
Vie burst into the room. “Asmo have you seen-“
“Gil went that way, and he ate like… 3 deathmenders.” Asmo waved her off dismissively as he reckoned with the carnage before him.
Vie ran off eastwards while Lili looked mournfully at Asmo’s table.
Lili looked over the damage. “Ooooof, that’s a lot of points you have to remake.”
“Yep. Spent 8 hours just filing away the mold lines last time. Also there’s cobalt in that paint, so have fun with that,” Asmo groaned, picking up plastic shrapnel.
*hurk, hurk, hurk*
“GIL NO!” Vie shrieked “NO! NOT ON THE CARPET!” Followed by the sound of sloshing and a sanguine river flowing down the hallway.
“This is why I’m not having kids,” Asmo muttered, gesturing over his shoulder.
“Right. THAT’S why,” Lili caught herself rolling her eyes.
“We’re okay!” Vie exclaimed, her hands firmly at Gil’s waist as he crawled by, dragging her into view. Vie’s outfit was completely saturated in blood, as was her now matted hair.
“So do you like… need help-” Lili started.
“I’m fine,” Vie replied, cutting her off. “Totally under (please child stop) control!” She called out, while slowly sliding out of view.
The two stared at her for a moment before glancing at each other, and back at their sister. They agreed at once that it wasn’t their place to intercede.
“Cool, have fun!” Asmo and Lili replied in unison, returning their attention to each other, as Gil continued to drag Vie slowly across the hall.
He sifted through the shattered remains of the army, taking note and sequestering a few of the survivors.
“Ugh, it’s gonna take like a week to reprint those runners,” Asmo bemoaned, attempting to jigsaw back together artillery pieces.
“I can run the schematics while you salvage what you have,” Lili offered.
“How can anyone have this much energy?!?” Vie cried out from down the hallway.
Asmo stared into Lili’s soul and shook his head with a sigh. “It’s fine. I need to do this for myself. And besides, I still have to survey the damages. I don’t want to waste materials by overprinting. Just take care of the bairn, I’ll try to keep out of the way.”
Lili rolled her eyes. “He’s your nephew too, y’know. You don’t have to be so distant.”
Asmo shook his head, defeated. “Look Lili, one day his mom’s gonna show up, I’d rather not get too attached.”
“Right. Like how our moms came back for us…” Lili trailed sarcastically.
Asmo took to his feet and shrugged. “The primary difference being someone threw that bairn into the barrier for a reason. I still don’t know if it was for his protection or as a form of sabotage. And since Vie thinks she saw the kids' mom, it’s only a matter of time.”
“It coulda been an accident,” Lili suggested.
“Right because eggs just magically scale 15-foot tall walls,” Asmo spat.
“HE’S ON THE CEILING! HE’S CRAWLING ACROSS THE CEILING!” Vie cried out from a couple of rooms over.
“I MEAN!” Lili gestured out of the room, but Asmo ignored it.
Lili stood silently as Asmo tried to shake off his frustration. “Look,” Asmo stated flatly. “There's a storm brewing out there while everyone is playing house. So don’t get too comfortable.”
Lili desperately attempted to keep herself from rolling her eyes, before finally taking a deep breath and realizing that she needed to change her tone. “Asmo. You’re allowed to have downtime, you know. When was the last time you went to sleep?” Lili reassured him.
“...Before Pim’s birthday?” Asmo muttered.
“Bruh.” Lili unconsciously gagged at the idea of being that sleep deprived from making toys. “Asmo. Go to sleep. Now.” Lili stated sternly.
Asmo tilted his head without blinking and lurched himself towards the door. He wanted to argue, or defend his passion, but his body went into autopilot and logged him out. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to bed.” Asmo trudged out of the room and bumped into Basil as he passed.
“Up early?” Basil asked, before looking into his hollow eyes.
“I’ve learned to hate the dawn,” He muttered coldly.
“Ah. Baby stuff. Have fun with that,” Basil said, sidestepping Asmo.
As she watched Lili and Vie struggle over the child, stepping over the blood vomit, she couldn’t help but giggle.
Through the noise, Liszt played her lute. It was one of her few repsites. The piano was long out of tune and even with Nyx’s technical expertise, none of them quite had the combination of a good ear, and fine motor skills to get it back to perfect pitch. As she played, she saw the silhouette of her mother from the corner of her eye.
“Liszt, you got any plans today?” Basil asked rhetorically.
Liszt stopped playing for a moment and gestured at the lute in her hands.
“I know you said we had work to do, but I figured it wouldn’t be at daybreak,” Liszt groaned, returning the lute back to its stand.
Basil tossed Liszt her boots.
“...But I guess I can skip a day of practice?” She said, suddenly suspicious about what she’d been voluntold to do.
“I need someone to come with me on a run,” Basil said, softly. “Can you fit her kit?”
Liszt narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow. She smiled. “Of course I can.”
“Good. Today is your first field operation. Get dressed,” Basil said, returning Liszt’s grin.
Comments (0)
See all