#lolonja

Alcor sighed. He was lucky enough that Lolonja had taken it upon herself to take care of Kid, but they had for whatever reason decided they absolutely adored him to no end which was frustrating. He wasn’t used to that kind of affection right now damn it! And it wasn’t helped by the fact they hugged anything and everything they had even the slightest bit of attachment to.

The advantage of having Kid living fully in the mindscape, in both mind and body, was that they were safe from the barren hell-scape that the physical world currently was, with everyone fighting and betraying each other over the most basic of needs. The disadvantage was that they always, knew when Alcor was nearby, their senses being more sensitive that way. That and they attracted anything and everything that lived in the mindscape that was more then interested in turning Kid into a snack and Alcor wouldn’t really care if they did, he didn’t know or care for this soul after all but, these damn emotions stopped him from letting that happening.

Kid, having probably ‘sensed’ he was there, looked up from tackling Killer to the ground and spotted Alcor, their large smile getting somehow larger. They rushed over to where he floated, wrapping their tiny arms around his legs as best as they could with him floating as high as he was. 

“ALCOR! YOU’RE BACK!” they screamed, hugging him tighter. 

“Ha, yeah, back, I, definitely left and totally wasn’t hiding,” he said, awkwardly patting Kids head before taking their hands and freeing himself. 

“Are you gonna stay and play with me this time?” they asked bouncing up and down, eyes sparkling hopefully. 

“Err.” Quick, think of a way out! “Sorry, Kid, but, oh dagnamit, I’m, I think I’m getting another summons right now! Damn I was so looking forward to spending time with you and your insistent positive affection.” Perfect. 

“Oh okay.” Kid stopped bouncing, looking down at their bare feet sadly. Less perfect. 

“Right, imma just go.” Great, now he felt bad. No, you know what, he’d made plenty of people feel worse then Kid in the past why were they any different. He was just keeping what was his close, no reason to give it anything more than what it needed to survive. 

“Well, see ya Kid.” And with that, he tessered to the other far side of his territory. 

Kid stared at the space Alcor had just been in before disappearing. Aw well, Alcor would return and then they could all play together! Kid’s smile returned to their face at the idea, already looking forward it. Maybe this time the summons won’t take too long and he’ll return within a few sleep cycles! 

Looking to see where Killer and Fluffernutter were Kid saw that they had moved on. They had probably thought Alcor was going to stay as well so they didn’t need to keep and eye on them. Kid was rarely ever left alone, always at least one Nightmare keeping an eye or three on them to make sure they didn’t get into any trouble. Especially near the boarder and grove that they just so happened to be standing on the edge of. All by them-self. 

‘I’m sure it couldn’t hurt to explore a bit,’ they thought, stepping in between the trees. 

The first thing they noticed, was that among the towering pines the “small collection of trees” was significantly more substantial, not that that fazed Kid, growing up in the Mindscape surround by the Flock. It just made them more excited to explore the place. 

Skipping along the non-existent path Kid made their way deep into the forest, not noticing the small shadow sulking out from behind a fallen branch. The further Kid wandered, the closer it got, slithering nearer, and nearer to them, until… 

“OW!” Kid yelped, stumbling forward away from whatever had just bitten their leg. It was a small wound, but it still stung. “That hurt!” they whined, getting a look at what had attacked them. The thing looked almost a tadpole -not that Kid knew what that was- except larger, with fur that flowed as if it was in water, and had large glowing white eyes.  

It hissed at them. They hissed back. 

Kid looked down at the strange thing as it shrunk in on itself at their hissing back at it. “You know you’re kinda cute,” they said to it, tilting their head. “I’m Kid! What’s you’re name?” they asked. It didn’t say anything, a little glowing white tongue licking its lips. “No name hu? How about, hmm,” Kid paused looking just ahead of them-self thinking of the perfect name for their new friend. “Fluffy!” they said triumphantly. 

Fluffy hissed again. “I’m going to assume that means you like it!” Kid moved their hand to pet Fluffy, the small creature in response leaping up and bitting down hard on Kid’s hand. Startled Kid let out a small “Eep!” stepping backwards and falling over, shaking their hand in an attempt to make Fluffy let go but it didn’t work. 

“No! Bad Fluffy! No bitting!” Kid tried to explain to no avail. When Fluffy continued to not let go of Kid’s hand they did the only thing they could think of and bit Fluffy back. It let out a loud screech and finally let go, Kid doing the same soon after. “It’s not nice when people bit you is it!” Kid complained, getting up to loom over Fluffy. “Now no more biting!” 

Fluffy hissed at Kid again and swiftly slithered away into a small eye covered bush. “Wait! Don’t go!” Kid cried out, pouncing on the bush trying to grab Fluffy. “I was just trying to teach you what Lonja taught me!” 

As Kid tried to grab Fluffy’s tail it disappeared from sight, vanishing into a puff of dark smoke. Kid leaned back and sat down, a few tears beginning to form in the corners of their eyes. ‘Why doesn’t anyone what to play with me?’ they thought. ‘First Alcor has to go, then Killer and Fluffernutter left to do their own thing and now Fluffy just ran away!’ 

A small sob escaped Kids throat when they heard a rustling sound coming from behind them. They turned around and looked for the source of the sound, seeing nothing new. 

“Hello?” they asked quietly. Kid stood up, wiping their noes with their arm, looking around again. “Who’s there?” 

The large shadow behind the trees moved, slithering between them towards Kid towering over them. It looked exactly like Fluffy, but significantly larger, with sharp needle like teeth pointing in all directions, and its fur moved erratically, glitching instead of flowing like Fluffy’s.

“Hi! I’m Kid!” 

Alcor stared up at the sky from his spot lying flat on the ground, waves of impossible colours moving between the monotone greys in waves like the ocean. It was nice, relaxing, peaceful. 

“So are you going to explain why you’re hiding from Kid?” Lolonja asked, ruining the peacefulness. Alcor groaned, hiding his face behind his hands. 

“I‘m not hiding!” he grumbled into them, moving them and sitting up, looking at the unimpressed sheep. “I’m just having some me time.” 

“Uh hu, and I’m an real sheep who spends its days doing nothing but laze around, eat normal grass and have its wool shaun off every time it gets to long,” she said, rolling her eyes. Alcor huffed turning away from her. He didn’t need to listen to her! Lolonja was the one that needed to listen to him!

Lolonja sat down next to him, waiting patiently for an explanation. They both sat like that for several moments of indeterminate length. 

“It’s just,” Alcor started, turning back. “It’s. They’re just so, so happy! And so, not scared of me. I don’t know how do deal with that!” he finished, waving his arms around for emphasis. 

“Well to be fair Kid isn’t scared of anything,” Lolonja interjected. “They could come face to face with the biggest baddest demon after you and still try to befriend them.” 

“I know, I know it’s just, they make me feel so weird when I’m around them! They treat me as if I’m the greatest, nicest person they know and, I just don’t know how to respond to that!” Alcor laid back down on the ground, staring at the ocean of colours, and sighed. “There’s not reason for me to care about them, they’re not Mizar or Sarva or anyone else I know but. I like their trust, and, not because I can take advantage of it, use it against them. It, they make me feel-“ 

“Human?” Lolonja interrupted. 

Alcor thought for a second, thinking it over. “Kind of, but not in a good way, they make me feel bad for doing what I’ve been doing for the last how many decades without care and. I don’t like it.” 

“Have you considered the fact that if you didn’t hide from Kid you wouldn't feel bad for being mean to them?” 

Alcor was just about to argue when the sound of Kid screaming filled the air. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath standing up and heading towards the source, Lolonja hurrying next to him. “What happened to ‘isn’t scared of anything’ hu?!” 

When they both found Kid they were hiding behind the few nightmares that had gotten there first, holding their arm close to their chest. The thing they were hiding from was a fairly large negative thought, similar to nightmares in that they came about from peoples minds, but different in that they weren’t properly sentient. 

The moment it saw him it must have seen how strong he was, because it almost immediately began slithering away, a few more nightmares coming and making sure it wouldn’t come back. 

Lolonja stepped towards Kid, demands to know why they had been alone and who had left them that way ready on the tip of her tongue, but Alcor held up a hand to stop her, giving her look to tell her he’d handle this. 

“Heeey, Kid, you okay?” he asked awkwardly, kneeling down to their level. 

Kid shook their head, tears streaking down their cheeks. “It bit me,” they sobbed, holding their shaking arm out for Alcor to see. It was a pretty nasty wound, Kids whole lower arm was essentially torn up, the negative thoughts many needle like teeth leaving long scars, evidence of Kid suddenly pulling their arm away. 

Alcor grabbed Kid’s arm to better look at it, loosening his grip when he saw Kid grimace. “Well that’s no good is it?” he said, Kid shaking their head in response. “Do, do you want me to fix it?” he asked, reasoning with himself that he was just making sure what was his wasn’t damaged. 

Kid nodded their head his time. “Yes please,” they muttered, and they held out their other hand. “The blood for healing?” Kid offered and Alcor thanked whatever that from the few proper interactions he had had with Kid had taught them that he needed something in return when doing something like this. He didn’t think Lolonja would be very happy if he had prompted it. Not that, Lolonja intimidated him in any way, he was her master being worried about what she’d think would just be absolutely ridiculous.

“Deal,” Alcor said, accepting Kid’s hand, a small burst of fire engulfing them for a moment. He then grabbed Kid’s arm again and quickly licked up all the blood, using the small amount of energy to heal it. It would still have the scars but it was better then before. 

Once Alcor was done Kid flung their deceptively small arms around his back, pressing their head into his chest, and Alcor found himself returning the hug. It felt nice. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” 

Maybe putting in a bit more effort into being more human could be a not terrible thing. 

“Does this mean you can play with me now?”

Alcor held the child out at arms length, contemplating what to do next. He knew as much he couldn’t just leave it here, as no one would probably find this place, not for a long while, but beyond that he didn’t know what to do.

After a bit of thinking he came to a conclusion. While he wasn't the demon they had planed, they were going to offer the kid to the one they summoned, they summoned him, ergo the baby was his now. That out of the way the next issue was where to take it. Previously he vaguely remembered faking a human identity to get a house in the physical world to raise any children he became responsible for, but there wasn’t an awful lot in the world as it was, mostly it was just barren wast lands with small scattering of civilisations around the place so Alcor didn’t really see the point in going through the hassle of pretending to be a lowly human. Which meant his current place of residence in the mindscape would probably do just fine.

At this point the baby had stopped crying and was staring wide eyed at the strange thing that held them and Alcor had to wonder whether it was such a good idea to take such a young and impressionable child into such a dangerous place.

“Nah, it’ll be fine. Come on Kid, let’s get you outta here,” and with that, the wrong demon and the child disappeared.

Lolonja gave an exasperated sign as she saw the Master return from his summons with a small child in his hand, the blood on his front and around his face saying more them enough about what was going on, though why he had come here to the mindscape with the baby then left it someplace to grow up she wasn’t sure. Both demon and kid were staring at each other, each face respectively portraying “The fuck I do with you now” and “The fuck are you” and the small nightmare decided to interrupt the soon to be staring competition before it got to intense.

“Hello Master,” she bleated trotting up to them, “any particular reason you have a child with you?”

Alcor looked at her, then back at the baby, which was now staring at her. “I don’t know, I think I decided to take care of it.” Lolonja didn’t know what to say to that. The Master had taken in children before, quite a few times actually, but he had always been in a bit more of a human state of mind and while he wasn’t entirely demonic he wasn’t entirely human friendly either.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“You suggesting I can’t handle it? I’ve done this before and I know exactly what human children need,” he retorted, moving the child to one hand and waving the other around that was in no way safe for the kids health.

“Of course you could raise them I never had a doubt,” she lied, “it’s just you have a tendency to forget the minor things humans require when interacting with society.”

“Well that’s why I’m raising it here where I don’t have to worry about stupid society and it’s stupid rules.” He was now not only holding the kid in one hand, but from the back of it’s little onesie, upside down. Lolonja quickly moved forwards and took the baby to rest on her back before her Master accidentally dropped them.

“If that’s what you think would be best for them,” she replied unconvinced with Alcor’s plan which could only end with disaster for the child. As much as the Flock and their Master got along they still couldn’t, or wouldn’t go against what he said, so Lolonja decided that it would be best to just go along with his plan. It probably didn't help her resolve that he kept calling the child ‘It’ though.

“So what’s their name?”

“Hu? Oh, well I was just calling it Kid so I guess that.” Lolonja sighed again. She had a feeling she was going to be the one doing most of the work for the child who was now pulling at the wool on her head with as much enthusiasm as a baby that small could muster.

“Fine, sure, if that’s what’ll work for you.” At that Kid started to whine, giving Lolonja’s wool a sharp tug, demanding attention. “Looks like their hungry, you going to take care go them then?”

“Oh um, well, uh, would you look at that, um, I’m getting another summons! I should, should probably go, deal, with that.” Alcor backed away awkwardly looking everywhere but the unimpressed sheep and almost crying baby. “Yeah, you, you can just deal with that for now so um, yeah I’m gonna, go, do that, summons. Yeah.” With that Alcor disappeared in a puff of golden sparkles.