Dark Crow Rising

As we walk out of the arcade and towards the stairs up to the bar, a female voice oofs aloud. Looking down at the victim once I get up there, I find myself smiling at my little sister, Aahtha. She gazes up at Nin's toy and her eyes widen with literal sparkles. Excited, she starts to bounce up and down.

"Did you win that!?" Aahtha would like to know with her voice squealing as the toy is presented to her, "CAN I!?"

Nin shrugs with an almost distasteful expression, "Might as well, no point in me keeping it. Even with how frustrating it was to win it..."

"Yippie! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she cheers as she tightly hugs the stuffed tomato.

"He's going to need a name, Aahtha." I remind her as I place a hand on her small head. Rubbing it affectionately as she giggles and fawns over the new toy.

"Mato! His name is Mato!" she decrees and my smile deepens before I nearly snigger in Nin's direction. Thusly, the toy is named, Mato of the Arcade, First of the Free Fruit, Escaper of the Claw, Frustrator of Human Souls.

Giving her one final smile, I leave my sister to talk Nin's arm off about whatever and head over to my nearby siblings. Undwote happens to be in the area, pushing a small cart holding both Pluuit and Oceinater in its red, plastic hold. The monkey drops things into the water and hoots and bubbles clash against each other in the most normal of arguments. Undwote huffs freezing air and his tobacco-craving hand taps his pipe pocket.

"A lot of you are appearing here all of a sudden, did Dad want something?" I ask my older, smaller brother before I play with his white hair to annoy him. I hiss bemusedly as the signs of frostbite briefly afflict my hand. My brother shakes his head after he looks at everyone else present.

"We're all here to drown our sorrows like the ancient bastard. This upcoming event is best served distracted. While none of us can see into the future as we can unaffected. We have all been through this enough to know how it will go down..." he moodily answers and I nod once he finishes.

"Ever the pessimist, I see." I half-heartedly joke as this whole affair is far too depressing to fully joke my mind away from. How long has Dad been doing this to himself? How many times must he keep throwing his heart wastefully at the very incarnation of Spite?

Undwote reacts lightly and a hefty puff escapes his lips, "We both know that's not it, this is a problem with Him and Him alone. He doesn't listen to any of us in regards to it, He keeps doing it, no matter how often we do this... This stupid thing is why He lets none of us be as all-knowing as we should be! I've had enough of these never-ending shaming sessions, it's always the same. If it bothered Him this much then He should reverse the clocks and kill Sargon."

I sigh as I recall Dad's alter ego during the final days of the old Reality-Web. Taking on the name of a King of Akkad to cover up the plans that had otherwise consumed him. Destroy the people of Abraham so that Babylon might live. The Fall of the Tower of Babel never involved Dad, it just became His quest when a dead king latched onto His soul...

Turning towards the small collection of air hockey tables, I consider going over to one. Maybe lean on it until someone decides to come on over and play. Anything will do, really, a distracted mind is the best kind. It's all we can do.

"Well, if everyone is coming to Hot Rod's for the distractions, we best find a way to pass the time, no? Toddler forms and Little Tots football down by the shoe exchange counter? Down the steps for a pool tourney? Find some sticky toys and send them soaring to the ceiling panels? The obvious?" I suggest without even getting into the pedantry of the arcade.

Undwote smirks lightly, "Whatever leads to the longest-lasting distraction and the most wins for me."

"Wrong way, Dumbarse." I remark as he abandons our pram-bound siblings for the bar. Following after this daring, underaged drinker, I boost him up onto one of the stools. Motrtha smiles at us as she comes on over in her casual barmaid get-up.

"Hello, Boys! Would you like anything?" she greets with the same usual heart-melting warmness that we all love her for. Our elder sister hums happily along to the opera music playing on the speakers but I do not recognise the language. This is not a mortal tongue and Dad is often quite punishing should we listen to music from before our existence. There's only one language He gives us a lax attitude towards and it's only when we visit... Her.

"Basket of chips with grated cheddar and the punchiest chilli you have on stove." Undwote answers before some basic telekinesis sees Oceinater dive-bombing into the empty slushie machine. My brother lets ice rain and he locks our brother in there while Pluuit hoots victoriously.

"He'll put you in a fruit salad." I remark to my monkey brother as he innocently chews on his fingers. Or, the fruit growing from them, rather.

"Pluuit, sweetie, may I have a lemon please?" Motrtha asks and our brother obliges so by growing out of his pot. Coming up to the bar as a gorilla, he presents his pot with a freshly grown lemon tree in it.

"And here I thought his brown nose was just bark..." Undwote snickers as Pluuit puffs his chest up proudly.

"Thank you." Motrtha says as she starts to cut one of the lemons up for our glasses of cola. I draw a happy smile using the condensation soaking the wood before having a sip. The refreshing fizz bubbles down my throat before my eyes glance Nin's way. He seems to be doing fine for the moment and Aahtha isn't getting up to anything.

"Anything for you, Sraacdchammu? Today's menu has quite the steak and salad combo if I might say so myself!" Motrtha asks and chirps as she applauds her truly divine cooking skills.

"I'll hold off for now, might as well get something with Nin seen as I came in here with him." I say as I tip my glass slightly his way.

"Oh, you mean -my- helper?" our sister jokes as she giggles quietly.

"My soul..." Undwote grumbles under his breath.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to him about what happened prior to his death." I answer with a hushed tone. My sister frowns as our older brother pulls his moping gaze up.

"You wanted to know how he came to be an osibindah?"

"I just wanted to see how he was holding up. This is a very strange set of circumstances he finds himself in." I clarify before taking another sip of my drink.

"That is... Probably for the best." Motrtha answers with a saddened gaze as she slows down with her idle chores.

"He have an outburst with you, too?" I ask, recalling what happened prior to the claw machine. If anything, the reason he struck it was because his blood was boiled prior to that.

"Last night, when I was decorating the table with flowers grown by Pluuit... We had already chosen roses that night but he... He started having a breakdown when he saw them and his eyes started going all misty and distant." my sister worrywarts.

"Nin mentioned someone earlier, that might be why." I say.

"He died near an aelenvari flower, so, stands reason to assume it was a girl called Rose." Undwote lets us know as he leans forward slightly to take something from behind the counter. Motrtha slaps his hand away and hands it over, instead.

"I see..." Motrtha goes quietly as she looks down and through the glass she is cleaning, "Did you find a soul that went by Rose? Maybe you can let him know she's ok, otherwise, if that is at all possible?"

"I never got around to the aelenvari dead, I went off to handle him as he was an oddly isolated soul. Then, well..." Undwote tells us, ending on a wide, swinging gesture that makes its point quite well.

My sister then flicks my head, "H-Hey..."

"You didn't push him too hard, did you, Sraacdchammu?" Motrtha asks with a deadly tone as her eyes come very close. Leaning back from my elder sister, I shake my head as my eyes widen with innocent disbelief.

"I want to say no!" I go with quiet emotiveness as one of my hands rubs the back of my head. I have no idea if Nin is a ticking, emotional timebomb or if I am responsible. I don't think I did anything wrong and unfortunately, my godly wisdom isn't doing me much good here.

"We will see, then." she tells me with a dangerous tone before her expression lightens up as if nothing was ever said. Turning, we see Nin and Aahtha approaching with my small sister currently munching on some sweets.

I give the two a wave and my sister happily returns one as the sugar infests her holy blood.

"Hello, Aahtha- Oh? Who have we got here?" Motrtha asks our polite sister as she notices the toy tomato for the first time.

"This is Mato! Nin won him and gave him to me!" Aahtha answers once Nin helps her up onto a stool. With her handful of sweets going all over the counter before Motrtha's powers herd them back together.

"Now wasn't that nice of him, I hope you said thank you." Motrtha teases, making Aahtha pout as this isn't something anyone can reasonably put into question. A small, purple plastic bottle then arrives before the little goddess and she takes it up in a reserved manner. A silent 'thank you' is displayed and she quietly gets to hydrating herself.

I look down at Aahtha and ponder how well and eagerly she plays into the role of being a child. Unlike Undwote on my right who is nothing more than an old man in the wrong body. Looking beyond my sister and towards Nin, I watch his awkward demeanour. He is trying to occupy himself with anything but looking at a certain someone!

"You hungry, Nin? You weren't there at breakfast." Motrtha asks and points out as she hands him a menu. One whose words change to match the alphabet he is most familiar with. Though, nothing can be done about my foul feelings towards it. Cuniform, just like Dad's tongue...

Rather peculiarly, however, some of the words on the menu are not translating.

"I don't know what these are supposed to be." Nin points out as he shows me the menu. His closest index finger pointing towards each of the words currently acting up.

"That's a Smokey Mountain, it's a burger topped off with a bunch of other meats and onion rings. Maybe salad if you want it." I answer and his head tilts.

"And what is a burger?" he asks and I nearly laugh. To think such a present meal here would be a completely foreign concept to Nin here, even with how simple the food's design is.

Using some of my godly powers, I illustrate the concept of the burger for Nin, "Two pieces of bread and a piece of meat in between with basically whatever you want with it as well, be it sauces or more fillings."

"So it's a sandwich?"

"...Yes."

"Why not just call it a sandwich, then?" he asks and I shrug.

"Ask our Dad. He's the one who introduced them to us." I say, gesturing to all my present siblings.

"Ok... Can I have this, then, please, Motrtha?" he asks her, his finger still positioned on the details for the Smokey Mountain.

"Sure, Dear, I can get you one of those, anything to drink?"

"Uh... Surprise me, I guess, you did well with that last time." he goes with genuine uncertainty as everything on offer is otherwise leaving him blank-minded. I watch closely as he does the same to Motrtha as she goes down the part of the counter that goes by the closed-up dartboard. His attention returns to the wood once she vanishes into the kitchen.

Though, one thing I have never figured out is if Hot Rod's has its own kitchen?

"Do you like Motrtha, Nin?" Aahtha asks with a giggle and knowing smile. Undwote suddenly starts to choke on his drink and it spits out all over the side whilst I laugh. The soul crashes to the ground as his stool suddenly finds itself upturned by his jerking. I quieten down quickly and smirk as I become outwardly aware of the expressions the two have.

Both are in shock, but how they spice it up adds to the thrill of this conversation!