Some Floofs from Craftclan's (Antfrost's twin brother) discord from in stream floof pics point redemptions!

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The hum of the maglevs was hypnotic, soothing on his ears.

Hypixel City never truly sleeps, Ant thought, gazing out the window of the hovertrain at the beautiful bright lights of the skyline and regretting answering that ping for a last-minute pickup for a client’s load of damaged cyberware. And neither do I.

The train car was full, like it always was at this hour. All the seats were taken and the aisles were packed, but it was eerily quiet, except for the hum of the train and the soft shuffling of fabric and flesh. No one talked to each other; everyone on the train was either engrossed in their HUDs or datapads, and still others had braindance wreaths on and were completely absent from reality. Ant had debated putting his own wreath on and queuing up an episode of one of the old TV sitcoms he used to watch with his brother, but the lemonade vodka from those two Spiked Summers he’d ordered at Las Nevadas had gotten him distracted.

It was clear tonight, clearer than usual. It was impossible to see the stars around the light pollution, but the moon shone brightly, a perfect orb of white in the black velvet sky. It looked beautiful in comparison to the corrupt wasteland of skyscrapers and neon lights that was Hypixel City, pristine and pale as it’d always been.

Ant swallowed hard, gazing up at the moon in contempt. It was like the damn thing was taunting him, reminding him of how he’d fucked up.

“Deep breaths,” Craft murmured, as they sat on the roof of one of the buildings in the slums. Ant’s hands were cold and his heart was beating too fast, but his older brother was hugging him, rubbing his thin, emaciated shoulders—his bones jutted out sharper than any seven-year-old’s ever should—as he shivered. “Just keep breathing, okay buddy?”

“I’m cold,” Ant mumbled through chattering teeth, sniffling anxiously. “Craft I’m really cold, where’s mama—“

Craft winced, tugging the blanket tighter around the two of them. “Mama’s… mama’s very far away, Ant.”

“When’s she coming back?”

Craft hesitated, and his voice was choked. “She… she’s not… well, she’s too far away. She doesn’t have the credits to get a ticket back.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s…” Craft stammered, wiping his eyes. “Um. She’s on the moon, Ant. Yeah.”

Ant perked up, grinning. “Can we visit her?”

Craft’s eyes turned distant and wet with tears, but he smiled faintly, stroking Ant’s hair. “Yeah. Sure, buddy. I’ll take you to the moon someday.”

“And you sure did a kickass job, didn’t you,” Ant muttered to himself under his breath, chuckling bitterly as the train snaked through the buildings and back into the big city. The moon vanished behind Hypixel’s skyscrapers, blotted out by towers of neon, steel, and corrupt wealth and depravity. “Mom never went to the moon, Craft. She overdosed on heroin and the guy she was stripping for left her to die.”

They’d never made it to the moon, either, and that was Ant’s fault. It was Ant’s fault that his older brother was dead, too.

He sighed heavily, resting his forehead against the window glass. Ant debated canceling his pickup—

[UNKNOWN] is this shit working

Ant jumped.

“Fuck,” he mumbled, and the people sitting next to him gave him annoyed looks, before turning back to their datapads. Ant opened the ping in his HUD, scowling.

[FREYR] who is this

[UNKNOWN] red

[FREYR] ?

[UNKNOWN] guy from las nevadas? bought you a drink??

[FREYR] ohhhhhh

[UNKNOWN] you said to ping this number.. where you at, cutie?

Ant huffed in amusement.

[FREYR] on the maglev

[FREYR] west line

[FREYR] omw to captain’s to pick up some shit from a client. wouldnt mind some company