The Skittering Chaos (Worm/Hazbin Hotel)

Well, I did it. All these pictures of generic moth girls are nice, but a fanart made specifically for this fic is better, right? Even if it can't compare in quality.

Spoiler

What do you think?

I hope I nailed both Taylor's newfound' fluffiness and her usual attitude. Great thanks to SystemSearcher for proposing Radiance as a reference, adding her to the mix gave a lot of ideas, and she served as a great transference between cute moth girls and Taylor. I took yellow eyes from her, for example. Not sure about them, but I felt I needed to add a bit of color. I also made her hands and feet black to match her hair. Generally, I liked working on this picture, and I hope you'll like it too.

 

The Skittering Chaos Chapter 12

Bit more set up and kind of slice of life to try and get myself back into the action and flow of the story.

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I walk back to the side door of the base, having finished my jaunt through the alleyways around the local area. From my bugs, I have a better idea of why the alleyways were so dangerous. Every couple of turns there would be something nasty prowling or hiding in wait, either another demon, or biters as well as other creatures. Most were in packs, while others squatted in buildings.

Even without my new enhanced form, just due to the trick I’d done on the small black biter I’d possessed previously, the biters weren’t much of a threat. Most of them were quickly pinned against walls. Those biters that hadn’t been caught up in my magical gales were quickly ended as I used my new found minion to intercept them. As it turns out, the little guy had rather sharp claws along with a nasty bite.

Of course I’d possessed more of them, not really finding myself strained as I did so either. There wasn’t much consistency among the biters, some of them were like my first possessed, furry, viscous, and seemingly a lone hunter. Others were insectoid in nature, creating little hives and burrows out of dumpsters or buildings. There were prowling packs of dogs, clowders of cats, and surprisingly, there was even a mechanical monstrosity in those alleys as well.

I’d avoided that one, not really sure what to make of it. From my possessed biter that encountered it, it seemed like some kind of tinker tech dog. The monstrosity was larger than a man with a vicious bite. My own biter barely had time to turn heel before the jaws of the mechanical dog snatched it up and crunched down.

Perhaps it would be prudent to find a local library and research the various different kinds of biters there were, or even other species that I could possess. I had lamented my bug powers in the beginning of my cape carrier due to their apparent weakness in comparison to other powers, yet I’d quickly realised how deadly and effective they could be. With larger creatures at my beck and call, my small swarm had its power increased significantly.

As I unlock the door with my bugs, I knock as well, announcing my return to those inside, those being Mimi and Felix. The bugs on the two still as I open the door. The imp and mouse demon are holding watering cans and seem to be back on weed watering duty as I interrupt them. The two demons look over to see me come through the door, and Mimi seems to do a double take as she sees my “true demon form” for the first time. I’ve grown taller so I have to duck a little in order to not knock my head on the top of the door frame.

“Skitter? Is that you? You got taller… and you’re fluffy!” Mimi says, awe creeping into her voice as she notices how I’ve gotten fluffier. During her exclamation, her ears perk up and swivel forward. I straighten myself back up to my now full demonic height. I don’t think it’s quite seven feet but it is certainly closer to that than to six.

“It’s me, Mimi, I was trying out some magic that one of the vigilante’s used, and it seems to have empowered me, though I’m not exactly sure by how much and to what extent,” I reply.

“God, I bet you’ve just got the softest fur ever now!” Mimi exclaims, then after a moment of seeming to fight with herself, she shyly asks, “Um, can I uh, touch… your fur?”

Amused, I smile and let out a quiet snort as I draw one of my lower hands out of my coat for her to feel. Mimi put her watering can down on the table before coming forward, and gingerly running a hand over the fluff. I hear Mimi mutter “so silky” under her breath as she feels the fur.

Felix himself just watches as he keeps watering the plants before his eyes are drawn down towards my legs where my biter is sniffing around in this new place.

“Is... that a biter?” Felix asks, apprehension clear in his voice.

“Yes it is, turns out that the magic I use to copy my old powers was far more versatile than I realised,” I say as I kneel down to pet a dry area of the biter. The little creature preens and holds still due to my mental command. “I don’t know if it is due to my empowered form, or if I was always able to do so, but at the very least, I seem to be able to control bugs and biters. I’ll have to test this magic more later.”

“Cool. Just, uh… don’t master me please? I uh… kind of like being myself for once, you know?” I smile at that. I’m sure nearly everyone from Earth Bet had the same fear, even me. Part of the reason I let Contessa kill me. I didn’t want to be a puppet, at least anymore than I had already been.

Though she mentioned “being herself for once,” could Mimi have been a mastering victim? I know that medication could alter how a person feels but with the reaction to mastering, might have something more to do with that, hence her wariness regarding myself.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on mastering anyone,” at least so far. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes, such things were necessary, like letting Regent master Shatterbird and Shadow Stalker. Unfortunate, but necessary. Even with my reassurances, Mimi doesn’t look convinced, and really, I can’t blame her. I’m apparently known down here, not for stopping Scion, but by how I mastered everyone to do it.

“Hey, I was thinking about this idea you guys had for making the Crimson gang think they were hit by Raz family, and you’re going to need Imps for that,” Felix pipes up. I look towards him. Even knelt down as I am, he’s rather short, and we’re about eye to eye. The idea we would need imps makes sense. If the Raz family was like he had said was some kind of imp mobsters, then we would need some kind of force of imps to be seen. Felix had already mentioned M.I.L.F. maybe there were some kind of imp mercenary group as well, or maybe imp assassins?

“True, but I don’t think we have the kind of money to recruit mercenaries at the moment, I assume you have an idea on how to get us some imps?” Felix nods, setting down his watering can and sticking his hand into his pocket.

“Yeah, even though I’m a city imp, most of my family is still out living in the ring of Wrath, and I might be able to get some of them to come over and help us out. Free of charge too. Almost everyone over in Wrath loves fighting. Plus they're pretty old fashioned so at least some of them’ll come over just so that they can be big heroes and get the girl or something like that,” I raise an eyebrow at that.

While I don’t want to get Felix’s family too involved, if they were willing then they can join in. Plus, the benefit if they managed to convince some of the girls to go back with them to wherever the ring of Wrath was would then mean less money and time needed to make the buildings livable for them. Though we would likely still need to either do some more raids on vigilantes, or figure out where the Crimson gang kept their money so we could raid it during the false flag to keep us going.

“If you managed to get some of your family to help out, what exactly should we expect?” As I ask, Felix smiles and his eyes brighten while his tail begins to wag behind him. At the same time, he opens up his phone and searches through it for something before turning it to me.

It’s a group photo which looks to be some kind of family reunion. A dozen or so couples of imps were there with quite a few young adult imps as well. I can identify Felix with them, he and the family he’s standing by are in nice looking clothes. The rest of the imps in the picture are all in clothes that looked like they came from over a century ago from the wild west, ranging from cowboys in their Sunday bests to a family near the edges that looks to be wearing something like what a banker or some fancy city folk from the late eighteen hundreds would wear. There had to be over thirty people there from just a quick look at the photo.

“I don’t know about getting all of them, but they’re from Wrath so they’re going to be tough, and good shots too. They’ll have their own guns as well so you don’t have to worry about that, and I know where we could get the suits to. Moxxie here,” Felix said, pointing to the edge of the family photo where the banker-clothed family was. “He and his family have always been snappy dressers, so I bet that they’ve got a bunch of suits that we could use.”

I nod along. The idea seemed sound. If they’re willing to help us with the raid, and the snappy dressing imps are also willing to let us use their suits to disguise the imps, then it would certainly make the false flag more believable. Depending on how much time we have to prepare, and how many imps we get, we could even hit multiple spots at once before the Crimson gang could properly respond. If done right, the imps would return back to the ring of Wrath with the girls who decided to go with their impish saviors, while the rest could stay with us or find a place to lay low for a while.

“Have you discussed this with Adam and Sherrel?” I ask, but Felix shakes his head.

“No, we got sent down to water the plants, and I was thinking about it while working.”

“Are you going up now?” Mimi asks, “can you wait ‘till we’re done? I want to see their faces when they see how fluffy you are!”

“I can do that, I should probably wash this guy anyways,” I say as I pick up my biter and make my way to the water spout. I feel through both my bugs and my antennae the two of them return to their work. The two demons work faster than before, though Mimi is working the fastest on account of her excitement. I begin running water as I move my biter into the water, letting it run over him for a bit as I pour some soap onto him and try my best to wash the alley off.

Slowly the dirt is washed away, as suds dominate the biter’s form while dirt, grime, and blood are washed away down the drain and quickly, the biter is looking far more presentable as his fur gets a bit of a sheen to it from the washing. The simple task reminds me of the times I would help Rachel out with her dogs, washing them in silence as we just worked together. It was a nice break from duties as a warlord in Brockton. A bit of time with my teammates, just, enjoying each other’s company.

During the time between Echidna and my unmasking, I didn’t usually give myself many breaks, I was just working all the time, making sure my territory was secure, stopping those that broke my rules, sometimes even face off with the Protectorate, though after everything that had happened, they were too scared to go after me. I’d used that fear to keep myself from being caught in my last week of being free… giving me the time to solve the last few issues in the Bay, and tell my team goodbye.

My bugs grow agitated as I pour my reaction to own thoughts into them. I let those that weren’t watching things get agitated, not wishing for my washing of this biter to grow more aggressive. Sometimes I hate hindsight. Even my good memories are tainted by what I did, how I betrayed them.

I never saw Lisa’s face when she realised what I was doing, and back then I was glad I didn’t. I wasn’t sure back then if I’d have still gone through with it, and done what I had thought at the time needed to be done. Now I know I would have still done it, I’d have still walked out on them. When they get down here, I’ll have to make it up to them for everything I put them though. Refurbishing this neighbourhood will have to be a start. After this whole false flag thing is dealt with, then I can see about finding Alec wherever he is. I can make it up to him, and I certainly needed to.

“Alright, we’re done! Come on, let's go show Adam and Sherrel your new floof!” Mimi calls out to me as she and Felix come closer to place their watering cans by the spout I’m washing my biter at. Looks like that is as clean as he is going to get at the moment. I use a bit of my magic to give him a bit of a blow dry before picking him up and place him under my arm as the three of use move towards the stairs.

Mimi is grinning like a loon as the three of us ascend the stairs up into the loft that Adam, Sherrel and lil’ Mark are in. I can feel that Sherrel is playing with Mark, on one of the couches, from the position of my bugs on both of them and the sounds of Mark’s giggling gurgles. Adam meanwhile is sitting in the chair in the room, likely watching TV or his family members play.

Before I enter the living room of the loft, however, Mimi raises a hand with a wide smile on her face, while I quirk an eyebrow at her. Mimi enters the room.

“Hey guys, guess what?” she asks. I place the biter down on the floor and straighten up my coat. If Mimi wanted to put on a show I might as well oblige.

“What?” I hear Adam ask from his chair. Mimi looks over to me from the doorway, and beckons me over. Amused, I follow her lead. It feels like… No, stop it. No introspection, no reminiscing about before, just enjoy the now. I have all of eternity to reflect on my past life, the past can wait, the present can’t.

I stride forward and turn into the living room, to the attention of both Adam and Sherrel. The first reaction I get is Adam whistling while leaning back into his chair while Sherrel perks up from her place on the couch.

“Dang girl, you got your demonic form and sh-stuff.”

“You look good, and you’re smiling, you need to smile more, it really looks good on you, both your form and your smile!” Sherrel comments.

“Really? Is that so?” I ask, and receive Sherrel’s nod back.

“You could probably make people see you completely differently if you just smiled more, rather than always have that intense look on your face,” Mimi chimes in.

“Yeah, your face is just really expressive when you actually show your emotions rather than when you kind of just… don’t express anything. Heck, even with your normal form, you’re like one of those plain girls they have in movies,” Sherrel explains as she makes finger quotation marks around “plain girls” as she says it. “They just need a proper makeover and then suddenly they’re a solid seven out of ten at least, right Addy?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Adam says.

“Come on Adam, you watched them with me. Remember “Mean Girls?”” Adam in response, just begins to scratch his head as he looks up to the ceiling, as if he was trying to remember.

“Honestly, I was paying more attention to you then the movies most of the time, remember,”

“Oh yeah, right. And you’d always fall asleep after we well…” Sherrel stops mid sentence, seeming to think better of what she was about to say, however, Sherrel did seem to gain a bit of a blush as she thought of what she was about to say.

“Well, you know,” and that was all that needed to be said.

“So whatcha’ get from yo new demon form? Some kinda brute rating or something?” Adam asks, drawing the conversation away from his love life with his girlfriend. With my power over my biter, I have him enter into the living room before sitting down.

“I didn’t test it out much, but my magic was boosted from what I could tell. I took control of several biters, most of them are out scouting the alleyways and getting a lay of the land.”

“You find anything interesting?” Sherrel asks as she plays with Mark’s tail, the little demon reaching up to grab it while Sherrel holds the end up above him.

“One of my biters came across a mechanical dog. The thing was as big as a car and built like a tank. Do you know anything about it?” Sherrel’s interest peaked there as I mentioned the mechanical part, while Adam shrugged.

“Probably some mad scientist shieeeee- stuff. They’re basically tinkers or something, only they apparently don’t need powers or something. Lot of sinners eventually end up as mad scientists around here and try to do stuff with their inventions.”

“There’s a bunch of them!” Sherrel remarked, “I was looking into it, and apparently Hell's had mad scientists since the ancient days with things like steampowered clockwork soldiers trying to conquer parts of hell for over two thousand years and they’ve only gotten better since then,” Sherrel reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, quickly pulling up a picture and showing me it. The thing almost looked like a terminator, and from what I could see it looked like it was glowing. Probably with magic.

“That was a clockwork from I think around year three hundred. When I looked it up apparently some Roman demon or something decided to try and take over Hell, got a bunch of guys together to make these clockworks to boost his troops, and from what I researched, they did pretty well for a bit. The clockworks were kicking ass and taking names, just slaughtering demons left and right, until they picked a fight with one of the more powerful nobility, then they got wrecked. But from what I read, they were worth ten demons all by themselves.”

“If there were so effective, why don’t people use them now?” I ask as I lean against the door frame. The Eagleton robot army was a nightmare to deal with from the reports I’d read, and that was with the parahumans stationed there being able to take on a dozen of the bots at once and come out unscathed. A robot army, especially back then when they were still using swords, shields, and not even full body armour, would have been a near unstoppable force without magic. To my question Sherrel shrugged.

“Resources apparently, that and the demon lord who was fighting them at the time teleported into the facility where the clockworks were being created and smashed the place. Then raided pretty much all of their mines and slaughtered all their workers. By the time they were done, the little empire these guys made was dismantled and the main guys were all on crucifixes outside of Pentagram city. Plus, they take a lot of resources to make and repair, whereas demons are already brutes with some pretty insane regen. Just keep them fed and you don’t have to mine a bunch of stuff. Granted, the clockworks were the best automaton around for like a century before another mad scientist came around, but the noble who fought the last bunch of clockworks recruited him pretty quickly,” I nod along as Sherrel explains. It almost sounds like mad scientists have many of the same problems that tinkers on Earth Bet have in regards to recruitment.

“Would you be able to make something like that?” I ask, and Sherrel’s excitement died there as she leant back, letting go of Mark’s tail who looked up at Sherrel and tilted his head.

“Most of the schematics from the internet are gone or missing parts of them. When I asked on some forum, they said that the ones that were up were purged by some demonic nobility one time, and then again when some demon overlord named Velvet started to take control of parts of the web. Most of the stuff I can find are more magic than science, and even that doesn’t have the magic stuff with it either,” Sherrel sighed. That made sense, after all, the PRT did something similar regularly where they would purge schematics of tinker tech online and sometimes even schematics using advanced science or were based on tinker tech due to it being dangerous. I hadn’t really been interested in that part of what they did so I hadn’t paid much attention. I only know about it because the issue came up a few times on the Wards lounge news feed. One such schematic that was purged from the internet I remember was some kind of prosthetic arm that was purged from the United States patent and trademark office’s site.

“We should look into that later then, but for now, Felix has some ideas on how we could perform the false flag on the Crimson gang,” I say shifting the conversation away from the state of Hell’s internet censorship. I move out of the doorway to let Felix through, taking a seat beside lil’ Mark. The tot had been trying to get Sherrel’s attention by bapping her on the leg while I’d been presenting myself. Rather than let Mark continue to get frustrated, I lift him up, and pull him onto my lap. He makes a small inquisitive sound as I boop his nose with one of my lower hands.

I listen in on Felix once more explaining his plan while at the same time playing with Mark to keep him occupied. The demonic tyke likes to slap at my various hands, high fiving me and low fiving me while letting out giggles as he does his best to hit them all, even using his tail a bit to hit at them as well. Mark’s tail, however, is even less coordinated than his hands so he usually misses with it, poking at me instead. As Felix shows the photo on his phone of his large family again for the rest to see, lil’ Mark commits to slamming both his hands and his tail against one of my own hands, and ends up falling forwards into me. As he does so, he explodes into muffled giggles as he lands face first on my fluffy ruff.

“How long would it take for them to get here?” Sherrel asks.

“Uh, a couple of days. Usually when we go to meet them we get a hotel for a night. then we’re are back on the road again and finally reach Crag Plain, uh that’s the town they live in.”

“So if you can get them, we’ll have to sit on our hands for a few days while they get here then,” Adam comments.

“It gives us time to properly get to know who these two groups are. Right now we just know that the Crimson gang beat the Raz family,” I comment.

“So how do we do that then?” Mimi asks. Remembering back to my first day, suicidal demons like the one I had tried to save had been clamouring to record the footage, so the war between the Raz family and Crimson was likely online somewhere, it probably was even on the news.

“We could search online, in the Wards I did a lot of my research on capes like the Nine and others on there, as well as there could be something like PHO here. Maybe even some other kinds of forums or sites that cover the various gang fights,” real life cape videos, just like police videos with combat were always popular, though many of the sites based in North America restricted videos where it showed the heroes in less than stellar lights, there was still a significant amount of videos that showed the ways capes fought, however. Plus, as a Ward when I was doing most of my research on capes outside of Brockton Bay, I was able to bypass the restrictions and even access private videos on the internet of cape fights. I likely wouldn’t be able to access people’s private videos here, but Hell cared less about violence and sex, so I shouldn’t have to worry too much.

“We could also ask Angel, Crackas been around longer than any of us. and he’s got more underground contacts than you could shake a stick at,” Adam comments. My phone rings, and as I pull it out, I recognise Angel Dust’s phone number on the front. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. I tap the “accept call” button and put it to my ear.

“Angel?”

“Hiya tiny tits, just calling to ask, that was you who was smoking those vigilante guys right? Thought I saw you for like a split second there when that rollie pollie went through the wall,” remembering back to the last call I had with him, and the sounds...

“Before I answer, please tell me,” I pause for a second and lower my voice cupping my hands around my mouth, “that you’re not having sex this time.”

“For your information I as masturbating, not having sex, m’kay,” my frown deepens. “Besides, it ain’t my fault that you called right when I found the perfect angle to hit my bitch button with-”

“I don’t need to know the details Angel-”

“Well you’re in Hell for the long haul toots, unless you catch a stray Angel spear or something. So I say have a bit of fun now and then, tell ya what, I’ll even help ya with whatever man you manage to catch in that web of your lil miss black widow, if you take my advice and try something on the deviant side.”

“just… can you at least...” I search for the right word but they all sound inappropriate, and I’d rather not say anything like that in front of Mark. Mark meanwhile grabs my enhanced forms fluffy ruff and rubs his face against it, making a cute sound, kind of like a yawn. “not, please? Or say that you’re busy?”

“Sure sure, now anyways, back to what I was askin’, was it you or nah?” Angel asks, finally relenting on the teasing. I swear he’s worse than Alec and Aisha combined. I’d try to keep them from meeting, but with how involved Angel is likely to get in this whole enterprise, it’s inevitable that they'll meet.

“Yes, it was us.”

“Alright cool, mostly just wanted to know cause I got a buddy, Cherri, did I mention her before?” thinking back, he had mentioned a girl named Cherri Bomb. Some kind of ex villain who, judging by the name, had something to do with explosives.

“You mentioned her, yes.”

“Okay good, she called and wanted to know who wasted those vigilantes on her turf, said next time she wanted in on the action. Oh hey, is Sherrel there?”

“She is.”

“Mind putting me on speaker will ya?” obligingly, I hit the speaker icon and am about to lean forward, when I look downwards to see that Mark’s fallen asleep on my chest. Unsure what to do I just awkwardly hold the phone before Sherrel realises the issue and grabs it and holds it up. Meanwhile with my upper arms I hold Mark closer and pull my fuzzy coat inwards so that it covers him like a blanket.

“You’re on speaker now, Angel,” Sherrel says into the phone, making sure to stay quiet enough to keep from bothering lil’ Mark.

“Hey Sherri, how’s it been?” Angel calls out.

“I’ve been doing good so far, how about you?” Sherrel responds, leaning forward toward so we can all hear.

“Been doing real good, making doe tonight, anywho, Cherri loves what ya did with your van. If ya want I could introduce you two so that she could make her suggestions and stuff,”

“Oh yeah? What did she want to add?” Sherrel asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“She said something about mortars and stuff like that, I don’t know the specifics but it sounds like she wants to do some mad science with ya,” the three of us from Brockton stop as we realise something. With a name like Cherri bomb connecting her to explosives, and her favouring tinkering to get those explosives from the sounds of it, the implications for us Brocktonites were obvious. While Adam and Sherrel didn’t have much interaction with Bakuda, from my fight with her early in my villain days, she certainly seemed like the kind of person that would “take charge.” While her wanting to join in a fight on her turf rather than be offended at someone for even stepping into it didn’t sound like her, she might have changed.

“Say, ya never said, but how long you known this Cherri girl?” Adam asks. I notice Felix and Mimi are looking at us strangely, likely due to our pause.

“I don’t know, like twenty or thirty years or something, girl died in like the eighties, why?” the three of us breathe a sigh of relief. So Cherri Bomb just happened to be some other bomb tinker who lived in the eighties, or took a liking to them while in Hell, considering that Hell had reproducible tinker tech since before the Romans fell, it was certainly possible.

“Anyways, you wanted to know about that Crimson gang right? I did a bit of digging for ya, asked one of our resident info guys about them, and I got some stuff for ya,” at that we all perk up.

“So, turns out that they came in from the wastes a while ago, basically a bunch of nomad tribals who come in, wreck the place, and leave. You know the kind right Adam?”

“Yeah I know the kind, me and Sherrel ran into a few of them out on that trip for Frederico.”

“So yeah, they’re pretty much are just about to leave after they sell a last few batches of slaves to whoever’s buying. Val’s probably going to get most of them, while the ones not sold’ll probably get brought along as entertainment or food when they leave the city.”

“How can you tell?” Mimi pipes up.

“They’re contractin’ inwards apparently. Val’s boys have been seeing them less and less near the border they share with Crimson, and the last time they bought slaves from them they’d been asking for gas and horses and stuff for the next trade, so they’ll be off soon.” meaning that the Raz family might somehow know this as well. It would explain why they were coming back in force if they knew their enemy was leaving.

“Any ideas why they might be leaving?”

“Eh, who knows, though if I were a betting demon, and I am, I’d say that they probably overstayed their welcome. I mean between them being one of the more obvious gangs to go after for vigilantes, less and less profits from slave raids, and them probably not exactly being the best neighbours for pretty much anyone means that they’ll probably have decided they’ve stayed long enough,” I nod along with the assessment.

“Did you learn anything about the Raz family?” I ask.

“Nah, but they're imps, so they probably got dusted, plus when their Don died their cop support dried up. After that, they turned tail and made for their basements. I mean the Crimson gang’s a bunch of nomads, so the Raz probably thought that Crimson’d leave and they can take back over.”

“Even so, I’d like to know more about the Raz family,” I say. Information was key after all in nearly everything. I’d likely never have lasted as long as I did without the information I’d researched before becoming a cape, then once more while in the wards.

“Sure, I know a few gal that make their ways around the imp neighbourhoods every once and a while, shouldn’t be a problem,” from the background of the phone I can hear a distant voice call out “Mr. Dust, we’re ready to shoot scene five.”

“Alright I’m coming! Well my breaks over, I gotta go. Talk to ya later,” and with a click the call ends. More information, but still not enough. I sit back for a moment, thinking as I guide my various bugs, and now biters through their tasks.

“Well, Felix, should probably make that call yeah?” Adam remarks to Felix, and he nods before scampering off while Adam gets up. At the same time, Sherrel stretches and I can hear pops as she does so.

“Aww, ain’t he a cutie,” Sherrel remarks, after putting the phone down, turning to Mark and I. I smile a bit and nod as I look down at him, the demon tyke’s face peaceful as he snuggles up against my fluff.

“Do you mind watching him? The talk about mortars got my brain buzzing. ”

“No I don’t mind,” I reply.

“I should get back to work on those drugs downstairs too,” and then Skidmark follows Sherrel, and wraps a hand around her as they go. I stare after them for a moment, feeling… something. I don’t really know how to place it, but even if it’s a small interaction, I feel something. Eventually after they leave, I just sigh as one of my hands pets Mark’s wild and unkempt hair.

“Something on your mind?” Mimi asks, but I shake my head.

“No, not really. Just… not a lot of down time until now. It’s all just been fairly busy.” Mimi nods along before getting up from her spot behind the couch and makes her way around it.

“You know, we could find those videos you want to search up and learn what we can about “The Beast”,” Mimi says, a mocking tone entering her voice as she says the leader of the Crimson Gang’s name. I give a breathed snort, not exactly the most original name ever.

“You don’t have anything else to do? I wouldn’t want to take your time if you needed to do something,” I ask but Mimi shakes her head.

“Nah, I got the watering done and I don’t know much about making drugs, never really did chemistry,” Mimi says as she sits down, her own phone out and she’s already tapping the password into it.

Mimi does a quick search on her phone, and begins to pull up various year old news reports about various gang violence and fights going on during that time. There are a few news reports, podcasts, videos, and even a radio segment by someone called Alastor on the gang violence going on in Hell during that time. Mimi pulls up a vid, and turns down the volume to the point that she likely can barely hear it as to not disturb Mark. With my antennae, however, I can hear it fine. As we watch, Mimi leans closer so that I have an easier time seeing the screen as she holds it up. She leans against me more the longer we watch the news on the various gang crimes that went on a year ago. I don’t mind.

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I don't even know how the fashion show bit got in, but I felt like it would be amusing and I kind of liked the idea of Mimi wanting to show off Skitter since [redacted], not to mention after that one summer camp, Taylor had to grow up quick because of the shit she was going through.

Any and all feedback is highly appreciated and encouraged!