The White Elephant in the Room Playground

[Tanuki]

Abigail’s commitment to comforting Gen saw her points skyrocket, even matching her rival. For some unknown reason, their heart turned from red to striped with two different patterns on each side. Perhaps it was an attempt at solidarity? “Platonic love has just as much power as romantic!” the Wii cheered.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse maintained an expression of dry bemusement as Lee did his best to pet him via his ears of all things, as a deity rubbed lotion into a fucking zangoose kid, and... and Rally did whatever the fuck Rally was doing.

"Y'know what, I think I've been tense fer nigh on thirty years. Would ya give my shoulders a good squeeze, partner?"

Jesse shifted round and let his eager admirer get to work. Shame the fella had so very much time for Jesse. It wasn't like they'd have much longer to be in touch with each other.

"Say... I don't rightly know that there even are any scum left," he mused out loud. "I'm fuckin' desperate not to lynch anyone by mistake. So I'll be votin' to skip, I think..."

He eyed the Wii. "That's assumin' the rules are even the fuckin' same anymore. Vote fer someone, they get booted off the mortal coil, kinda thing?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"I'm a bit lost on all this now," Abigail admitted, "but I think skipping is agreeable enough..."

 

[Fusion]

'The ear thing didn't work, dammit,' Lee cussed internally. It was the favorite of his one other companion, who was also a fox. Granted, they were a Zoroark, and a reasonably strange one at that. Guess things are different when an entirely different species is involved. He felt some tinge of warmness in his face and grumbled sheepishly. "Shoulders, right."

Lee gently swapped places with Jesse, allowing the fox's back to rest on his chest and propping his own back up on the armrest, and did his best to rub and knead those old shoulders. For some extra points, Lee muttered something under his breath, and his chest floof floofed a bit more than usual. Admittedly, Lee had no idea what he was doing. Despite not actually being the one getting pampered, this all still felt... nice. Almost helped him forget where he was and the shitstorm they all had to deal with prior to this.

"I'm curious about what would happen if we actually voted Santa, so I'll have my vote on him," Lee said to the Wii, then turned his attention back to the fox upon him. "Am I... doing this right?" he asked, tittering. "I expect it isn't much of a surprise to hear that I have never done this before."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Abigail laughed. "Sure. Santa. I can work with that, too. I can't say I'm not curious, too, and it's not like we'd be wasting a night this time, either."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

This... was nice.

Jesse closed his eyes, leaned back, and gave a long, rattling sigh of satisfaction. He'd hardly taken a breath all week, and it wasn't even unusual for him. It was about time he had some enjoyable company, and... this was that. For once. Even without his proper telepathy to give him a leg up on conversations, stressful as that was.

"Yer doin' a great job, Lee," he said, and yawned as he did. "Thanks, partner. That's real good."

What of the crisis, though? Could he even afford to relax about that? Was it out of his paws? Would voting Santa resolve it somehow? Had he, as he'd slowly feared more and more with each day, been approaching it all wrong from the start? It didn't seem to matter quite so much while a friend worked at the twenty-years-knotted muscles in his back, and he watched Zeke make a fool of himself, and Abigail rescue Gen from his misery. Who knew where Tabitha was? But somehow, he didn't have it in him to worry.

"Fuck it. I'll throw my vote in fer Santa. I don't give a shit, let's see what fuckin' happens."

 

[Fusion]

Lee let out a relieved sigh, then grinned. "Marvelous, if there's any other spots I should hit, I'd be happy to oblige."

Whenever Lee thought about it, it made no sense how he was pulling so much enjoyment or pride out of this. Well, no, the pride thing was easy to explain, he was doing good and was being told he was. But what was so enjoyable about rubbing someone's shoulders? The thought was so strange that Lee decided to stop thinking about that.

"It'd be very much appreciated if voting Santa solved all of this, but I feel I'd be more furious over it afterwards. All this time trying to find a murderer, and there never was one?" Lee chuckled, growling faintly afterwards. "But, then again, if voting Santa out works, I could ask him whatever we need." Suddenly, a funny thought came across Lee's mind. "Actually... could I have tried to talk to him this entire time?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse snapped his fingers. "Fuckin' great idea, Lee. Have ya got a charge of yer power left fer the day? Try it now, if y'can!"

 

[Fusion]

"I'll see if I can," Lee nodded. "But I also don't want to get up so..." Lee's head went limp near instantly, and his little ghost self emerged.

"Alright, back in a sec, or longer. I dunno how long it'll take for me to find out if I can contact that fat bastard."

 

[Fusion]

Lee's ghost returned, panting and wiping his ethereal brow. "Turns out, Uh... I can try to ask him? Anything specific we wanna ask or what? I don't even know if it'll work."

With his ghost somewhat close to his body, Lee was now half-awake. At some point, he had wrapped his arms around Jesse in an actual cuddle, but returned to massaging the fox proper.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

The cuddle was unexpected, unasked-for, but not unwelcome. It had... been a while. Gods, it had been a while.

"If he was even murdered, maybe? Wait, nah, if there's a livin' murderer in our group, how 'bout that?"

 

[Fusion]

Ghost Lee saluted and wisped away, leaving Lee to again fade into unconsciousness, and to again, cuddle Jesse.


"Nice... Fox..." he muttered.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse sighed.

"You're the only one t'think so," he muttered to himself. "And sore mistaken."

 

[IFBench]

Gen hesitated, then said to Abigail, "Come with me."

He attempted to drag Abigail along with him with one nub until he was over near Jesse, then he attempted to hug Jesse with one nub and Abigail with the other.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse bit his cheek sharply, but didn't stand or pull away. He reached out a paw and gave Gen a pat on the head.

"Don't you worry about me, son. I'm just fine."

He hadn't been fine in nearly a decade, but who was counting?

 

[Fusion]

Ghost Lee again returned, muttering some other language. "Goddamnit... It was a waste. I got nothing."

The spirit flew back into its body, causing Lee to faintly jump back to life. He might have been dead, but he was alive enough to still hear what was going on. He gave Jesse a snug squeeze and sighed. "Mistaken as I might possibly am, I can guarantee you're at least better than I am ordinarily. I might not know the details of what you may have done, but I feel as if you might be too rough on yourself."

"And I might be less alive than most, but... uh..." Lee brought his head close enough to Jesse's ear just so only the fox could hear. "I almost... sort of... feel alive again... Thanks to you..."

When Gen and Abigail waddled over to the couch side, Lee let down an arm to bring up whoever wanted to be a part of the... cuddle he foudn himself on the bottom of.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Jesse stiffened up, and turned his face away, but he didn't muster an objection. Duty over comfort, that was the mantra. But right now the group's morale was the most important thing to maintain, in the face of spiritual peril from experiments in spacetime. So he let them be near him, bodily, if not emotionally.

They wouldn't care for him under other circumstances anyway, if ever such should come about.

This was all just... bonding through shared experience of traumatic events. Nothing more.

 

[Tanuki]

"Er, y'know, never mind, actually," Zeke mumbled, near inaudibly. "There's, I'm, equations. See ya." He kept his eyes firmly on the ground and went for the door as fast as he could without technically running. He grabbed the doorknob, but barely couldn't turn it. Hesitation held him tight. He tried to speak, and after several false starts, he barely squeaked out, "Sorry," and shot outside. Hopefully the night wouldn't be too cold; in his rush, he'd left his hoodie behind and left with only swim trunks on.

"Santa?" the Wii asked. "Everyone wants to date Santa?" Its voice sounded disappointed. "I thought I'd gotten you all to bond at least a little." It reluctantly pulled up the tallied votes, casting aside the last game's scores. All the votes went above a hasty scribble of Santa. "Well, it's getting late. Sleep well." It shut off without another word.

Night fell nearly the same moment the screen lost its signal. While light went away, the standard storm didn't come.

Dawn of the Eighth Day

Counting time since Jan 21, 2021. Showing days, hours, minutes and seconds counting up

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[Tanuki]

Updated Dawn of the Eigth Day

Counting time since Jan 23, 2021. Showing days, hours, minutes and seconds counting up

www.timeanddate.com

 

[Tanuki]

Jesse's hackles went up before he even heard the motherfucker's movements. So. They weren't done yet. That was one question answered, at least... and very soon, perhaps he'd discover the answer to another question: what happened when you died, in this absurd, purgatorial, bullshit locale?

He turned to face them. Narrowed his eyes. Watched.

The wretch indicated his present. No, you bastard. No, I'm not opening the goddamn box. I'm gonna put you through the trouble at least, damn you.

"I ain't touchin' the fuckin' gift," he drawled, one paw drifting towards his wand holster. "You're gonna have to dust me yerself, you cowardly lil' shit."

And so they did.

Jesse's wand clattered to the floor, smoking gently. His paw clutched at his chest. He sunk to his knees. Goddamnit. They'd been close. So close. At least it was him and not one of the others. He deserved it for leading that fucking mislynch anyway. Goddamnit. God damn it...

"God fuckin' damn it."

As Jesse died, he thought of Sierra and Brisa. If he was wrong, and this was his true death, they'd never know the truth. They'd be in danger. He'd been stupid. So fucking stupid...

"Fuck... you..." he choked out, as his lungs, at last, ceased to breathe.

A light exploded from his present, leaving no remnant of the father behind besides the present itself. The box held a framed picture of him holding a young Brisa while Sierra embraced them both. Who knows who took such a photo, or how it came to be. Christmas Magic, perhaps?

The mountain remained stabilized out of its instantaneous travel, though the sound hadn't caught the memo. All the partygoers could hear the rumbles of everyone getting out of bed, as well as honks and splashes from some pond or pool. Zeke's hoodie remained on the living room floor, untouched in the night's commotion. Hopefully the boy had found a warm place to sleep, but at least the past few nights had acclimated him to freezing weather.

As the group gets together in the living room, they see only Jesse missing, his present joining the others opened. They had no time to grieve, however: it was bingo time. "Hello! Tell me, does anybody have an O seventy-four? B six? Hows about an I nineteen? An N thirty-one? N thirty? Be sure to claim any Bingos at your earliest possible convenience!"