Buttopia
patreon
Chapter 67: A Hole in the Wall
🕑 Added 2024-12-29 01:16:03 +0000 UTCI dropped the mallet joke as neither of them looked enthused and went back to the small talk. As awkward as it was, it was needed. It had been a while since we had all seen each other in person, and things had changed for all of us. Even if my changes happened to be the most drastic, it didn’t make theirs any less important to me. Somehow even when the bus took to the sky, we just kept talking about some of the changes in their lives.
John had met Maud two years ago at the restaurant he was working at, and they hit off. They had just moved in together last month and had only gotten the cats three days ago. Alex was still in school and doing well, but I could tell there was something she didn’t want to tell me, so I didn’t push it. Considering how alike we were, I had the feeling it was a bad breakup. Before I could learn anything else, the bus landed, apparently, Timon hadn’t been lying when he said the return trip would be much faster.
“Man, I need to see your world. It sounds great,” Maud said loudly from behind me, likely trying to talk over the noise of the landing. She was taking this much better than I had, or that it looked like my kids were, for that matter.
“Well, it’s probably better to tell the story here than inside. It’s going to be cold in there until we get the wall covered. So everyone who wants to hear the story of what I’ve been doing since this invasion started, please join me at the larger area in the back of the bus,” I said as I pulled out Corey while we walked to the roomier part of the bus. The dungeon core was part of the story, and they needed to meet it anyway.
“Since we already know everything, I think we are going to see if the orc bodies have anything useful and dispose of them if we can,” Cecile said, Elicec nodding along. While I wished they hadn’t mentioned the bodies yet, I was glad they were going to go deal with them.
“Sanquar said he froze time and sent you off to some other world, seems insane to me, but then you know there’s all of this making it a bit real,” Maud said, pointing to the people in the bus. That was as good an opening as any. So I explained everything to them, from when I started eating breakfast that morning to the moment I saw them on the sidewalk. They were completely silent the entire time. Sanquar, too, his silence surprised me a little. I would have expected him to have more questions.
“That really all happened?” Alex asked first, apparently, their lack of questions was only during the telling of the story.
“Yep, straight down to us killing the leader of the invasion,” I said.
“I confess, my memory isn’t the best, but it seems things have stagnated somewhat in the Spiral. They were not great before, but this seems worse than anything I can recall,” Sanquar said.
“I don’t know, I mean it sounded real dangerous, but kind of awesome,” Maud said cheerfully. John said nothing but did put his arm around her.
“So what happens now, then? Is Earth safe?” Alex asked.
“I don’t fully know, but I very much doubt it. From what little I saw, it looks like the orcs did a lot of serious damage to the places I passed, so I assume that’s worldwide. We also have to assume the death totals will be astronomical, so I have no idea how the planet rebuilds from this, but if it’s safe from future invasion, it should,” I said, not sure how to break the news that I very much doubted it was safe.
“We aren’t. Considering the orcs, I am sure things haven’t changed that much. Earth will be incorporated into the Spiral, whether we like it or not,” Sanquar said with a strong, matter-of-fact sentiment. I knew he was right, but it didn’t mean he really had any idea what that meant.
“Bird’s right. There’s no real way they are ignoring this universe after charting chaotic space to get it. Now there is that whole giant fucking complication of Sanquar sitting there, not to mention the invasion faction is essentially dead, thanks to Dave here. That’s gonna have some repercussions somewhere. Whatever it is, Mel has up his sleeve, well, would have up his sleeve if he wore shirts. It better be damn good. He’s gotten us in worse shit before, but not by much,” Timon added from the front of the bus. How good was his hearing anyway?
“This Mel guy, when is he coming back?” Alex asked. That was the million-dollar question. When would Mel be here? We needed him, and I hoped he would keep his promise.
“That’s another thing I don’t know, and I really wish I did. I’ve told you everything I really know, so I guess it’s decision time. If you want to leave, I’ll have Timon take you back. While I really want you both to stay with me, I won’t make you,” I said, worried about what they might choose.
“Not sure we have much of a choice there. If, and it’s still a pretty big if, despite the fact that the mallet can talk, that your story is true, the only real safe place is here with you, so I’m staying. Are your tools still in your garage?” Alex asked after a loud sigh. That was one heartbreak avoided. Was another possible?
“Yes, my tools are still there. John, what about you?” I asked my son, looking over to him.
“Yeah, someone has to do the cooking here if Alex is staying. Plus, you do have all these new faces who probably need to eat, too. You don’t eat heads, do you, Timon?” John asked the mantis driver.
“How do you know my ex?!” he asked back incredulously. At some point, I was going to have to tell Timon about Earth mantises that, by some insane fluke, share a trait with only his ex-wife. That was much less important than the fact that John was also staying. I smiled, letting my own anxiety fade a bit for the time being. There was work to do, after all.
“Yeah, I’ll stay too,” Maud said. Somehow, I had forgotten about her, but she was welcome too.
“Glad to hear it. So I guess we need to start getting this place ready for all of us then. Alex, are you planning to work on patching the wall and kitchen damage?” I asked her.
“Someone has to. We can’t all freeze to death. Dad, I think I can safely speak for John here as well. We both love you and kind of believe you, but this will take some time to get used to, and eventually, we are going to need to find out if Mom is even alive,” Alex said. I completely understood. Honestly, the entire conversation was going so much better than I had ever expected or had any right for it to go.
“That’s all I can ask, and I promise to help find her when we can,” I said, meaning it. Laura was once the love of my life, possibly still was, and even if she wasn’t she was the mother of my children. They deserved a chance to see her again.
“Come on, John, let’s go see if we can set the cats up in a bedroom and find something to use for a litter box,” Maud said as she stood up. John followed after her.
“So what are you going to do then?” Alex asked.
“First, I’m going to go find the twinogs, and see what they found on the orcs. I figured Corey could hang out with you and help with the repair work. It will be good for them to talk to other humans. After that, I need to take a deep dive into all my quests and figure out what I still need to do,” I answered.
“Okay, after that then I expect you in the kitchen for dinner. John will have made something by then, and you can’t disappoint him again. I know how much you were hurt, I get it, but John was fourteen; this is the only other chance you’re going to get to reconnect with him,” she said. I would make sure I was there for dinner.
“Got it, I’ll be there,” I said.
“Thank you,” Alex said, standing up and heading off the bus, followed by a floating mallet.
“I’m going to stay here and check that everything on the bus is still in good shape, but then again, no one asked,” Timon said, sounding upset. I was reasonably sure he was joking, though. I could not actually read him at all, which, considering how bad I was at reading people normally said something
“I will accompany you, Dave, I want to try an experiment if Cecile and Elicec have found what I suspect they have,” Sanquar said. That was interesting; what was he up to?
“Alright, well, follow me,” I said, heading off the bus myself and walking towards where our big fight had been.
“Dave, what do you want now that I have changed your life so radically?” Sanquar asked as he followed me. What did I want? I thought I wanted a return to a peaceful life, but that likely meant letting the divide with my children settle back in. Plus, there was the fact my body didn’t ache every morning anymore. Hell, I hadn’t even noticed when I stopped wearing my glasses. So what did I want now? I think I wanted to push myself further. I hadn’t felt this kind of drive in a very long time, a thrill for the new and my brain wanting to see just what is over the next change so badly. Yes, I had gotten tired of the dungeons, but there was so much else to explore, and I could even live with a few of those as long as I had time to practice my own craft. Most of all, though, I wanted to build things again.
“So much that I don’t know how to easily explain it. When this started, I was running on pure anxiety, day after day, just trying to figure out what was happening and why, but now? I can feel the thrill of it all. There’s just so much potential to learn, and so, so much to build. I want to say that its been years since I had this many ideas in my head, but I don’t think I ever really have,” I answered. Sanquar nodded back, seemingly understanding the nonsense I had just spewed. I needed to pick the brain of the bird soon.
The high judges exist as a way for factions to bring matters to a resolution without a war. Instead they can plead their cases to a panel of judges and have a ruling. While legality can sometimes sway just what the ruling is, what usually matters is the power of the petition relative to the power of the defense. In the Spiral, rarely do those with less power come out ahead.
Grom’s Musings
