Alright, sure. Probably for the best, anyway -- if you                               don’t have much of an alcohol tolerance, th-this shit                                         can be downright -- URP -- lethal.

He frowned to himself. It was evident that his mother’s reply was not what he    wanted to hear right before starting his 10th grade year. She had a point,    though. It wasn’t like she could just come to school with him and keep    people from bullying him or beating him up. She had a job to do. Besides,    having to rely on his mom to protect him would probably just make him a    subject of even more teasing and harassment in the long run. But even    those facts couldn’t stop him from at least attempting to raise some sort    of argument or complaint.

       [Rick’s shopping spree ( primarily to purchase some more bird feed          for his daughter’s collection of exotic birds ) had been interrupted by          a “breaking news” report on television -- now, normally, that wasn’t          anything that would capture his attention, but this was different. In           fact, the report ( involving a cop chase between some prick of an           actor suffering from a mental break ) actually featured his daughter!          Not in a positive way, either. That asshole actor had the gall to stop          by the house she shared with her father, and that wasn’t going to fly.          Not with Rick, at least.]

         [He nearly dropped the bird seed he’d been holding when he saw           that shithead actually hug his daughter -- and that was the absolute          FINAL straw. Hell, he’d actually intended to potentially pay for this          shit, but you know what? FUCK it. He wasn’t going to stand by as          this asshole assaulted his baby girl, so he pulled out his portal gun          and hurriedly teleported to the scene, rushing up behind the douche          ( who had just released his daughter from his embrace ) and taking          the opportunity to mercilessly shoot him with his freeze ray. Rick          proceeded by allowing the stranger’s chilled body to collapse and           shatter on the pavement, casually stepping over the carcass ( as           though he hadn’t just frozen and killed someone on live television )           and greeting his daughter with a smile.]

                            Hey, sweetie! I saw this creep on the news -- was                              he bothering you? 

         [After a split second, he recalled the reason he’d gone out in the first          place; getting some bird feed for her! Those birds of hers wouldn’t          feed themselves, you know? What a sweetheart, so compassionate          about animals that she had a bunch of exotic birds as pets. Granted,          they were all gifts from Rick, since he traveled so much, but still!           She’d kept them, hadn’t she?]

@surgeonxsmith

       [For the past few hours, rather than napping and recuperating from their           exhausting travels as his daughter had, the father had been preoccupied          with a recent breakthrough of his -- namely, the concept of programming          their television with interdimensional cable, utilizing the properties of          crystallized xanthonite. Since his method allowed aforementioned cable          to be portable, he’d already managed to set their hotel room’s television          up, and had begun casually channel-surfing, as he couldn’t find it within          himself to fall asleep. He’d just stumbled upon a show called “Ball           Fondlers,” an action-packed series that was SO violent that there was an          explosion every five seconds -- no exaggeration -- when he heard a bit of          rustling from his daughter’s side of the bed.]

         [Beth was starting to stir, as it were, so the father turned the television’s          volume down -- more time had passed than he’d originally believed, but          that didn’t matter. His daughter’s alertness would call for him to explain          their current situation, which wasn’t necessarily a task that he WANTED          to fulfill, but one that he ought to...especially if he was going to drag her          along with him. Their series of adventures would require a certain degree          of strategy, particularly involving the protection of both him and Beth, and          he couldn’t possibly leave her in the dark forever. So, in other words...he          had to explain everything now, and...only hope that she’d agree to           continue their journey from here. Rick wasn’t necessarily certain whether          he could handle returning to their dimension to drop her off, let alone           traversing the multiverse alone, now that he was already beginning to           grow attached to his daughter’s presence.]