Warning: spoilers for “World Revolution” and “The End Of The Beginning”.
You are Lavender, and according to your daddeh, it’s been a few munfs since the dawk cloudy bwite time. Almost a yeew, actually.
You know now that a munf is about thirty bwite times, but you have difficulty counting that high.
You can count to ten, though. What was it your other daddeh said? Thirty is, um… three tens. Right?
And a yeew is apparently twelve munfs. That’s ten, plus… uh… was it three?
Oh, if only you had fingews! That would make counting so much easier!
You’re kind of jealous of Marley, now that he can turn into a hoomin.
Of course, with your floaty thing, you can do a lot of things that would usually need fingews.
Chakra is currently teaching you how to use the floaty thing to play video games. You got a GameFluff a while ago, but you’ve been using your hooves.
You think video games are a really good idea. Mistah Cal showed you this one video game, about a little green hoomin who has to roll a sticky baww around until the baww gets really big.
Hoomins.
How do they come up with that stuff?
Since the dawk cloudy bwite time, things have been peaceful on the fawm.
You’ve gotten used to James being around again, and you can believe he’s nicer than the old James, because he’s gotten his own fluffy, Eddie. You haven’t seen James give Eddie owwies, not even once.
But this is why you can count to ten. You knew there were already nine fluffies living on the farm, and nine plus one is… uh… ten!
You’re pretty sure it’s ten.
That includes Rose and Rowan’s babbeh, the one they chose to stay. All of their other babbehs have gone to loving hoomin daddehs and mummahs in the sitty.
Little Valentine, as your other daddeh suggested Rose and Rowan name her, is pale pink and red, with pink see-places too. Like her mummah and daddeh, she doesn’t have wingies or a hownie.
Of course, by now, none of the fluffies on the fawm are little. The younger fluffies are all big fluffies now.
You’re happy about there being so many fluffies on the fawm, because your saferoom is big. When you first arrived on the fawm, it felt a bit too big, because you were the only fluffy on the fawm.
That is, if you aren’t counting Scrappy.
But he’s doing well.
James also has a hoomin special friend of his own now.
Her name’s Lilah, and she’s from another timewine. According to James, she’s a lot nicer than this timewine’s Lilah was.
How many timewines are there?
Apparently, in this timewine and James’ timeline, Lilah went forever sleepies. James was special friends with his timewine’s Lilah, so he was really saddies when she went forever sleepies.
And Lilah was also really saddies when her timewine’s James went forever sleepies.
So they were both really happy to see each other again.
You’ve got the hang of this whole timewine thing by now. You’ve met a few other Lavenders at the Inn Between Worlds, when your daddehs took you there.
They were all really nice!
Right now, you’re in the sitty, wandering through the awwey-ways. You’re here on mistah Cal’s behalf.
He’s a good baws.
You’re not scared, for three reasons:
- Even though you can’t see him right now, you know your uncle Klaus is flying up above, keeping a see-place on you.
- You know mistah Cal wouldn’t let you get owwies while you’re doing this for him.
- You have powahs.
You’re actually using your powahs right now.
Famke and Chakra have taught you and Magnum how to sense the presence of others.
What that means is, you could already feel when your daddeh is nearby, but now you can feel when others are nearby.
Right now, you feel that there’s a hoomin nearby. You need to be closer to see what he’s thinking, but you can feel that he’s not a nice hoomin.
You also feel that there are several fluffies nearby, and they feel terrified.
Then you hear a sound.
FWIP
And then you feel that there’s one less fluffy nearby.
As you turn a corner, you see where the sound came from.
A big, hoomin mistah, wearing a mask, and holding a bang-bang, and a fluffy family, cowering in terror.
And one poor fluffy babbeh who went forever sleepies. You think you know how.
You waddle up, not scared of the mistah at all.
Most fluffies would be be scared of that mask. It’s green, and looks like… what do hoomins call it? Oh yes, a gob-win. There’s holes for his see-places. That’s important.
You just think the mask looks ugly. If you had muh-nees, you’d bet that the face under the mask is ugly too.
He’s probably ugly on the inside as well.
In fact, you’re rather angry with the mistah, now that you’ve seen that babbeh he gave forever sleepies.
You have babbehs of your own. You don’t like babbehs getting owwies.
“Hey! Dummeh! Weave dem awone.”
The mistah turns to you, pointing the bang-bang at you.
“Oh look, another shitrat. How about I kill you next? Actually, on second thought, I can just kill all of you.”
You glare up at him.
“Nu in dis sitty.”
The bang-bang floats out of the bad hoomin’s handsie.
You’re doing that.
The fluffy family you just saved watches in silence.
They probably don’t know what’s happening.
“The fuck?!?”
“Nu moov, mistah.”
And the bang-bang points itself at his head.
click
You smile.
“Wavendew knu how bang-bang wowk. Du mistah wan Wavendew tu shu mistah?”
“Oh, now it makes sense. You’re one of fucking Korkea’s hugboxing freaks, aren’t you?”
“Gut it in wun. Wavendew am gunna awsk dis wun time: wai am mistah duin dis?”
“Why? Because that’s what shitrats are there for. I don’t need any other reas–”
The tip of the bang-bang presses itself against the mistah’s face.
“Eep.”
“Wavendew nu nee anee udda wee-sun ee-fuw.”
Then the bang-bang flies up, putting itself on a woof, where the mistah can’t reach it.
“But Wavendew nu am wike yu.”
The mistah starts walking up to you.
“You’re right. I’m not about to die–”
You lift the mistah up into the air with your floaty thing.
“Put me down, shitrat!”
“Nu.”
You turn him upside down.
As his shiwt falls down… or up… you see something on his chest.
Now, you’re not the best at recognizing letters, especially when they’re upside down…
But you think he’s got the letters A.S. on his chest.
You don’t know what it means. You can’t read, although you know what reading is. But you also know that you’ve seen those letters around the sitty.
You look up.
“Uncuw Kwaus! Come take a wook at dis!”
Your uncle Klaus lands, in his neff-uh-wim fown.
That means he’s using his an-gew powahs.
“What is it, Lav?”
You point a hoof at the bad mistah’s chest.
“Those letters again. I shoulda known. We’ve been trying to figure out what they mean for months. You gonna tell us, asshole?”
“It means fuck you, you hugboxing freaks!”
“We’ve been getting replies like that from everyone with that tattoo we’ve run into. I’ve had enough. Lav, see if you can’t get some answers.”
“Gut it, uncuw Kwaus.”
“Wait, what?”
You look the bad mistah in the see-places.
And then you look further.
You hear his thoughts.
“…Goddamnit, why can’t I break free?!? She’s just a shitrat! So what if she has powers? So what if all of those those hugboxing freaks have powers? They can’t stop the S–”
FWIP
You and uncle Klaus are very surprised when someone makes the mistah go forever sleepies with a bang-bang.
The fluffies the mistah was planning on giving forever sleepies flee, leaving the poor forever sleeping babbeh behind.
As you put the forever sleeping mistah down, uncle Klaus looks up, and points at the woof you put the bang-bang on.
“I think it came from up there. Lav, I have to ask: YOU didn’t do that, did you?”
You shake your head.
“Wavendew nu wike gibin hoomins foweba sweepies, eben if dey am bad hoomins.”
“Then let’s get up there. The killer is probably still there. They can’t get away from us.”
When uncle Klaus lands on the woof, holding you, you both see that there’s nobody there.
The bang-bang is gone too.
“Damn it! They got away from us. Well, at least now we know one thing.”
“Wut am dat, uncuw Kwaus?”
He sighs.
“Someone does NOT want us to find out what A.S. means.”