#divinebastet

Argumi's wriggling day party was going to be great, he just knew it. He had invited a bunch of his friends to come hang out with him at the park. He was still too young to bake, but he had saved up enough of his allowance to get a nice cake for everyone to share. He waited happily at the picnic table, dressed in his best funny t-shirt (it had a picture of a stick figure pointing to a sign which read 'Bad', beneath which was written "Well that's not a good sign") while his lusus observed from above a nearby swingset.

The custodian knew enough to keep its distance, but Argumi was still happy to have it in attendance. The bird's eyes swung back and forth across the park as the guests started to arrive, a mixture of lower-rung castes that Argumi had run into outside of schoolfeeding hours. Argumi eagerly accepted any gifts offered to him, talking excitedly with his friends while waiting for the last of them to arrive. Once it they had, he quickly got the cake from his fetch modus and placed the pre-baked good on top of the bench.

His wish for this sweep was an easy one, of course. He wished the next one would be even better than the last one! The candles burning atop the cake he politely snuffed out not by himself (with spit) but with a little miniature fan he had brought with him. Some of his friends joked that he couldn't possibly get his wish doing it that way, but he preferred not to accidentally make some of his friends sick.

"What a dork. Who even buys miniature fans?"

Argumi blinked, smile faltering slightly as he looked around. Everybody was looking expectantly at him to cut the-

"-Cake! When is he gonna cut the cake? Oh man, I'm so hungry..."

One of his hands clutched his stomach as pangs of hunger suddenly ran through him, and the other hand went for the knife. Right. He needed to cut the cake. He was hungry. Of course he was.

Above him, his lusus's eyes turned towards him as it cocked its head.

He began cutting the cake into roughly equal slices-

"Ugh, I just know I'll get a small piece. He's not cutting them right!"

"C'mon, c'mon, hurry it up, man!"

"I really hate math, god, there's a test tomorrow too... Boring..."

His grip fumbled on the knife as his smile fell into a frown, but he still forced himself to keep going. He didn't have a math test coming up, did he? His lusus would have mentioned it, so why was he...? He shook his head, putting the slices of the chocolate confection onto disposable paper plates. Yet, no matter how many slices he handed out, the thoughts, and the feelings, didn't stop coming.

He sank into his own seat, head in his hands as he felt like at least twenty brains of thoughts were being jammed through his lonely single one. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to calm down- and was immediately hampered as his mood swung between content, to giddy, to excited, to bored, back to content, then generally happy-

"Are you okay?" someone asked, putting a hand to his shoulder. Argumi opened his eyes, looking into the face of the troll concerned for him.

"What a little weirdo. At least he's the funny kind of weirdo."

Argumi's face froze. "What did you say?" he asked haltingly.

"I asked if you're okay? You're looking pretty out of it," they repeated, frowning.

"Man, he better not be sick. I do not need him giving me something. I just got over the flu last week!"

Panic began to spread through his chest, squeezing Argumi's heart tightly as the thoughts seemed to come spinning through faster and faster. His eyes began to bulge, his palms grew sweaty even as the nerves in his arms and all over his body felt like they were on fire.

There was a shriek in the air, and something else swooped down next to him. Argumi squeezed his eyes shut again as tears welled up in them, while his lusus continued to shriek and scream at all the guests until they fled in confusion. After several minutes of calm, Argumi was able to open his eyes again.

He saw his lusus, watching him with concern, and otherwise no one else. He was entirely alone. His gaze blankly shifted to the table in front of him.

Someone had stolen the rest of the cake on their way out.