Chapter 730: A Sleepover?
Bashenga was watching television.
Now this may not seem like much of a monumental occasion, but this was actually his first time.
Previously, he had no interest in the strangely human methods of entertainment that populated Tehom.
What was the value in it? It was all just a series of fabricated stories and events that had no meaning in the real world.
What did it matter if the main character died fighting a wildfire before he got out of prison?
Who gave a shit if those two were actually on a break or not?
What did it matter if the road was a figment of the boy's imagination the whole time?
It was all a charade!
…Or so he thought.
Bashenga was absolutely never planning on it, but he accidentally ended up in the family media room.
Abaddon, Ayaana, and Sif were all sitting together with his older sister Courtney.
At some point it seemed like they were all watching something together, but the youngest seemed to have fallen asleep; allowing her parents to cut on some more adult programs.
…But nothing dirty. They were still in the company of one of their babies after all.
Bashenga originally came to inquire with his father as to how it was possible for he and his sister to create eldritch horrors.
But that was over an hour ago.
Now, he was sitting in Abaddon's lap with Courtney, and while his sister was uncontrollably drooling, his eyes were thoroughly glued to the screen.
The object of his focus? His father's favorite trio of boxing movies that just so happened to be on for the umpteenth time.
Bashenga was entranced from the beginning.
The choreography. The desire to stand out on one's own. The determination to force the body to evolve.
It moved even Bashenga's unshakable heart.
But there was just one… or rather twelve things that were hampering this experience for him.
"Do you believe that you three can cease the smashing of your lips together long enough for me to discover if this 'Pretty Ricky' fellow will be bested in single combat?"
Abaddon, Sif, and Ayaana were in the middle of sharing a sweet and innocent three way kiss. Their sixth in the last four minutes.
While it was hardly a perverted or grotesque scene, that certainly didn't make Bashenga like it any better.
"Is our little man feeling a bit left out?" Ayaana asked as she pull her lips away from the two.
"I can assure you, I am the furthest thing from-"
"Come here, mommy's baby~"
"Why can you never listen to me?!"
Despite his struggle to avoid it, Bashenga was still picked up by his unified mothers and had his cheeks forcefully plastered with a simple lipgloss.
Bashenga eventually put his hands up to block Ayanna's full lips from stripping away any more of his pride.
"Please spare me your advances, unholy amalgamation of motherhood!"
"Mwah." Sif kissed Bashenga's opposite cheek.
"And you as well!"
The girls only laughed as if they found his lack of warmth to be delightfully amusing.
"Can you all not keep your lips off each other for five seconds? There isn't that much affection in the world to go around!"
"It's hard to contain yourself when you're this lucky in love." Ayaana gushed. "You just want to share your affections with the ones you hold dearest at every moment of every day!"
"Yes, well by now you've all shared enough affection for the next 100,000 years so I would think that you would grow sick of putting your lips on each other at some point!"
"""Never!"""
"Disgusting."
The movie finally ended and unsurprisingly Bashenga immediately wanted to watch the second.
However, Abaddon took a consensus among the girls first just to be fair.
Sif: "I'm fine with that."
Ayaana: "It doesn't matter to us."
"I want to watch 'Terriffier 3'!"
Everyone followed the small noise towards Abaddon's lap where Courtney was now wide awake.
"…Okay." Sif started to change the channel.
"No!" Ayaana plucked away the remote with her tail. "She can't watch that, it's far too violent for her."
"Is it..? I thought kids liked clowns and stuff…"
"The word terror is apart of the name… How have you not put together that he's not a regular clown who makes balloon animals?" Abaddon asked.
"We were kissing like two seconds ago, I barely remember my own name right now."
""…Fair."" Abaddon and Ayaana shrugged in unison.
Abaddon lifted up Courtney above his head.
"Sorry, little miss. No mass murdering clowns for you. And I hope that no one has let you see the other two movies either."
Courtney smiled uncomfortably as she stuffed the memory of her Grandpa Heli in the very back of her mind. Though not so far that her father couldn't hear it.
"Well if I can't pick the movie then can I have a sleepover??" Courtney suddenly asked.
Abaddon raised a brow in confusion. "And how exactly do those two things correlate at all..?"
"Give and take!" Coincidentally, Courtney had also learned that term from Helios.
"Your premise is a bit flawed though, my dear, since you were absolutely never going to be allowed to watch that movie and thus can't use it as a bargaining chip."
Courtney puffed up her face cheeks with air like a little blowfish.
"A sleepover might be doable though.." he rubbed his chin.
"Pleaseeeee?" Courtney begged. "You promised that if I made friends I could invite them over whenever I wanted."
Naturally Abaddon was always going to say yes. He knew just how badly that his young girl needed to interact with others. Besides, a promise was a promise.
"Of course you can, my dear. We'll get whatever you need for it."
"Thank you!" Courtney gushed.
Bashenga watched this entire interaction from start to finish and he couldn't believe what he had just seen.
"You would actually invite any random children into the indescribable nightmare realm of myth..?"
"No." Abaddon rolled his eyes and flicked his son in the forehead.
"We bought a house in the same version of earth that your sister's school is in, darling." Ayaana answered.
Bashenga blinked his eyes very slowly. "You bought an entire home just in case the event arose where this little one would want to have friends over…?"
"""Yes.""" All three adults nodded.
Bashenga could no longer tell if his parents were actually alright in the head, or if they were just insane.
No, he had always known that they were nuts. He just wasn't expecting them to give him such an in your face reminder this soon.
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"…I just want to watch my movie."
Bashenga pressed play on the second installment of his boxing films and he was instantly entranced once again.
But this warm familial atmosphere was suddenly interrupted when their newest houseguest came a-calling.
"Abaddonnn~!"
"God damn it…" Bashenga lowered his head.
Nyx came waltzing in while wearing her usual bright smile and a short nightgown.
"Come to join us, Nyx?" Abaddon smiled.
"Not quite, hon. Your phone was ringing." Nyx passed the device to him.
Abaddon's pleasant expression immediately turned upside down.
"…Why did you have my phone?"
"Ooh, what are you watching? This looks interesting." Nyx sat down in Sif's lap and made sure that she saw a bit of her panties before she did so.
Sif held up her hands innocently while Ayaana and Abaddon stared daggers into her.
"Crreed 2. You may only stay and watch it with us if you remain quiet." Bashenga informed sternly.
"Oh? Alright then, sweetie."
"And keep your lips off everyone present."
"I will try my best!"
*Nyx would in fact not try her best. She would go on to try and steal kisses from everyone present over the course of the two hour movie. This persisted until Ayaana and Sif tied her up in magical restraints and then sat on her to keep her quiet.*
Abaddon stepped away for a moment while the movie was still in it's early act.
The person calling his phone was actually Azrael who was no doubt calling to get back to him about the important favor he'd asked for.
Even though things were strained with Yesh and Asherah, it was still important for the creator's family to know that their public enemy number one had escaped.
"Hello?"
"It took you a while to answer. I hope I am not interrupting your intimacy."
"No, my friend, I just didn't have my phone on hand… How goes the search?" Abaddon asked warily.
Luckily, it seemed as though the angel of death actually had some good news for him.
"My brother is not on earth, Abaddon. You can rest a bit more easily now."
"Are you sure..?"
"I am positive, dragon. Just as your kind cannot so easily hide from each other, the same goes for the seven of us. If Lucifer was on earth I would know it instantaneously."
Abaddon nodded slowly, but for some reason he didn't really feel all that much better.
His kids were safe from Lucifer at least, but what was this final gnawing feeling in the back of his mind..?
"There's something else…" Azrael added.
"Go ahead."
"I'm sure that father and mother haven't told you, but for the past few months… We have not laid eyes on Michael either."
"Which means…"
"I don't want to assume anything yet, but… There exists a chance that they are working together."