#illustrated short story | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

flintox · 1 year ago

Text

[Jewelry. (Story and Drawing.)] "You can't seriously be considering this offer." The proconsul growled. "It is madness! It goes against everything we stand for!"

He did his best to steady his choler. Had the situation not been so dire he might have strode across the war room and struck his proconsul himself for daring to speak against him, but dire the situation was. "It is either this or certain destruction."

"But we have not explored any other option!" A younger lion spoke up, a newly minted general. "Our armies are strong and our ships are advanced! I refuse to believe we can't stand on our own without this mockery of an offer!"

The emperor stared across the room. A few days ago he might have lauded this sort of bravery and dedication to their planet, but now it struck him as nothing but the hot blooded boasting of a young and inexperienced fool. "Tell me-" he asked, bringing his voice to a low and soft tone, barely above a whisper. "How would you command an army against the sun?"

The young general seemed shaken. "These aliens are exaggerating their claims. They cannot possibly be that-"

"And if they're half of the size they claim to be?" The emperor interjected as he strode towards the younger lion allowing the various senate members and commanders in the room to see the stark difference between them, the younger, more energetic general and the aged, composed graying features of the emperor. "Or even a quarter? If one of their soldiers was even a tenth of the size they claimed…an army made of every able bodied person in our empire wouldn't even earn their notice."

The fire slowly left the general. He withdrew with a bow, his eyes still flickering with fury. The emperor met that stare, unshaken, a momentary memory of his younger days as a commander flaring in his mind for a brief moment. What would that young lion think of himself today? He stepped away from the general, turning his attention back to his gathered consulate and command staff. "You are all viewing this act as one of surrender. I shall not lie to you, it is such an act."

Murmurs broke out among the senators, consuls and generals, made silent as the emperor raised a palm to silence it. Even during these unsteady times the commanders recognised his authority. "But-" he lingered on the word, making sure he had every ear in the auditorium. "We are not surrendering to these aliens."

His gathered command structure glanced between themselves, unsure where their leader was headed with this speech. The emperor took a deep breath. "Our planet, insignificant as it may be, has withstood the test of time. Without our knowing, we could have been wiped out before our species ever climbed out of the primordial ooze. But we have not. We have been at the whims of fate for our entire existence, at risk of being snuffed out by whatever the universe might bring."

He glanced around, meeting the stare of every single person there. Full attention. The emperor swallowed. "Where as fate could have sent a destroyer, it has instead sent an offer. Fate has given us a choice. We can either decline this offer and hope that no destruction comes for us in the future or-"

"What you suggest is less than vassalization!" A senator piped up. "This is madness! You cann-" the men at his sides quickly pulled him down, silencing him.

The emperor stared across the room. "You are seeing this from the eyes of our old world." He said sharply. "Before we knew of life on other worlds we were warriors. Forged through millennia of strife and battle. What battles can we win in a universe so much larger than ourselves?"

The senator shrank back, not even daring to look the emperor in the eyes.

He straightened his back and moved to the center of the room. "Think of this not as the death of our empire, but a metamorphosis!" The aged lion said with triumph in his tone. "We've been made an offer to put our planet in the care of this federation, where we might explore the cosmos alongside them under their protection. As our ancestors fought and bled to build our great empire, did they not do so with the dream that we might see a time of endless peace one day?"

The auditorium was silent. Not a single head turned away from the emperor.

"My citizens, brothers and friends-" he raised his voice further. "Let us not wallow in the darkness alone as decrepit husks clinging to our ideas of war and prestige, but traverse the cosmos as explorers and travelers!"

A thunderous applause erupted throughout the auditorium as every single senator, general and statesman rose to their feet, cheering, calling and clapping. His heart rate finally slowed and the emperor felt the weight slowly leave his shoulders. It was a good thing his robes hid how much his knees were shaking...

-------

The sky was sheer chaos. Lights flooded the world for a brief moment before vanishing behind a cosmic wall, only for said wall to give way to another wall that swayed back and forth in a rhythmic motion. The few times their carrier stood still long enough for anything to be seen outside their container they could barely glimpse anything more than a fraction of a face or the blur of the outside world. This was not what they were promised.

He stared up at the skies, at the shifting shape of their little view of the galaxy as it shrank, expanded and sometimes even vanished all together. Were it not for his years of experience tempering his choler, the emperor might have been more visibly furious.

"My lord-" The proconsul whimpered at his back. His eyes were transfixed upwards as well and his face was awash with red. A mix of fury, shame and fluster. "T-this is-" The younger lion struggled to gather his words. "This is nothing like what the federation promised! We were promised that we would become passengers around the stars but this--we c-cannot let this persist!"

"What would you have me do?" The emperor hissed back, allowing a fraction of his frustration to leak through.

The proconsul shrank back. "I-I do not know- C-can we not negotiate better terms? Perhaps a new carrier?"

He scoffed, not even bothering to scold his pro consul for the foolhardy notion that he hadn't taken such actions already. Whatever contact had been made with the federation had been left frayed and he couldn't help but feel that they were now ignoring him outright. Another carrier was out of the question, it seemed, as it was a herculean task to find someone willing to guard their planet.

"C-could we perhaps be kept elsewhere?" The pro consul suggested.

The emperor shot him a glare. "There is no one else to carry our planet."

"No-" the consul shifted his hands nervously. "Could our carrier keep us elsewhere with them? You have the means to contact them, do you not?"

He froze. The emperor did indeed have the capability to contact their carrier. A fact that he dreaded. Once their planet had been placed into the care of the federation he had hoped that he would not need to speak with anyone there for the rest of his reign. But what other choice did he have now? His planet was near revolt, the promise of a dignified existence and safely exploring the world around them in the care of a greater power now felt like a mockery of their current existence. They weren't explorers, they were decoration. The emperor swallowed, composing himself briefly. "Very well."

With great trepidation, the emperor walked back into his office, followed by the pro-consul. He stepped in front of a viewscreen, massive enough to facilitate video calls with the leadership of the entire planet if needed. Slowly, he input the sequence into the communications array. A built in process made with the idea to ask their carrier for assistance in the event of a catastrophic failure of their container. Surely, this had to suffice for that need. With one last press, the emperor initiated the call.

Dots began to blink across the screen, a very mundane loading screen compared to the enormity of the call, a detail that was entirely lost on the emperor and proconsul as their attention was entirely focused on the world outside the office. The endless shifting of lights stopped, allowing the brightness of the outside world to linger. A trembling worked itself up the old lion's legs, realizing that the call had caused this. The screen lit up as a live feed of a figure filled the large viewscreen.

"Heya!" A feminine voice coming from a younger though not young, far more vibrantly colored alpaca pierced through the speakers as she waved her hand playfully.

The emperor was taken aback. He had not seen their carrier before. In his mind he had this idea of something akin to the federation official, a professionally dressed scholar and explorer, as skilled in bureaucracy and statecraft as one would need to be to work with entire planets at a time, nothing quite this provocatively dressed or showing this much skin. The sight of this red clad alpaca barely half his age was shocking, though not as shocking at the trinket hanging around her neck. A golden chain could be glimpsed in the cream colored fur, leading to a small, minuscule orb of glass nestled within the alpaca's chest. The container for their planet, barely visible within her cleavage. The emperor had felt small during his discussion with the federation before but now, now he felt downright insignificant.

"I'm a bit busy right now but I'm still stoked for this deal, could I call you later?" The alpaca said quickly, adjusting a short brimmed blue hat idly.

"W-what?" The emperor blinked, a mix of awe and confusion overwhelming her.

The alpaca blinked. "The ad deal?" She narrowed her eyes. "Isn't this about the soft drink ad?"

"Soft drink?" The emperor repeated, no less confused. "N-no, this is-" His knees were shaking so much that he had to lock his feet together like a soldier trainee just to save face. "This is the emperor of Augus Three."

"Oh!" she gasped. "Oh right!"

He swallowed. "I-i've called to discuss-"

"If you're looking to book a concert you gotta go through my agency-" The alpaca interjected. "I don't do birthdays though, sorry~" she winked.

"Uh-" He cast a glance at his consul, the younger lion stared at the screen, awestruck with his jaw hanging loose. So much for having an advisor give advice. The emperor turned his attention back to the screen, clearing his throat and trying his best to sound authoritative. "N-no. I am emperor over the planet you've got betw-'' He snagged a finger into the collar of his robes, adjusting them briefly as he mentally reworded the sentence in his mind. "The planet in your care."

A mix of shock and amusement spread across her face. "OH!" The alpaca playfully tapped her head. "That's right! I totally forgot you guys could call me." She glanced down, staring at the tiny jewel-like orb poking out from her cleavage. "So, what's up?"

The skies shifted as a shadow fell over them, from his room the emperor could vaguely make out the shape of a nose several thousand miles away from their planet. "Uh-I- '' He swallowed to steady himself. "It's no em-emergency-"

"I gotta say-" The alpaca interjected. "Your species is really cute~"

He blinked. Where he not so preoccupied with trying to hide how much he was shaking the emperor might have made more of an effort to hide his blushing. "I uh- Thank yo-"

"Of course, I did request a cute species for my necklace." The alpaca continued. "So uh- What's up? I thought this was like an emergency number type of deal."

"Well I-" He swallowed again. "Miss-uh-"

"July." She said, winking. "Honestly, It's been a while since I met a species that didn't know my name. It's refreshing."

The emperor stifled a grimace. That was another grievance he had with their current predicament. Instead of being handed over into the care of a diplomat or a scholar their planet was given to some starlet, an actress of some sort. They didn't even know that was a possibility, having assumed that the care of an entire planet would be reserved for trained experts and not some galactic celebrity. "Miss July. "I-I'm calling to request that you wear our wo--that you keep our world in a different place.

The smile on the alpaca's face faltered slightly. "What? Why?" A sly smirk spread across her face and she shifted her elbows slightly, pushing her breast together just enough to make the planetary container jut out before she wiggled her torso a bit, shaking the planetary dome around in her cleavage. "Your planet looks so nice around my neck!"

Seeing those massive mounds encroach on their planet made his heart skip a beat. Visions of the dome giving way to those sun sized breasts and being erased in an instant flared in his mind. An empire that had spanned several millennia wiped out by the chest of some actress. "S-stop that! Please."

July gave a faux frown as she stopped swaying. "This is a very standard place to keep planets. Or at least that's what the federation told me. I don't know what your issue is."

"It's-" He faltered, trying to steady his fear and anger. "We were promised we would see the universe-but we cant see anything past your--uh-your features. They're too large!"

She giggled. "Thanks for noticing~" The alpaca jutted out her chest proudly. "I can't imagine how they must look from your point of view. According to my advertisement focus teams they get a lot of responses from smaller species about my chest."

"But we cant see anything!" The emperor argued. "Couldn't you wear our planet on a finger or somewhere else we might actually see the universe?"

"No can do!" The alpaca said in a sing-song voice. "I don't do finger rings and I'm sure as hell not getting a piercing. I'm scared of needles." July laughed.

His fear was slowly giving way to pure fury. "T-this is undignified! We are a planet, home to a sentient species! We aren't some trinket you use to adorn your bosom!" The emperor raised his voice to a growl.

In his many years, showing a modicum of anger was enough to get his way, it was a diplomatic tool that when used sparingly was as effective as any military incursion. This was the first time he'd seen anyone laugh at it and simply roll their eyes. What bravado he'd managed immediately wilted and vanished when he saw their unfathomably massive carrier reach into her cleavage and pluck the container housing their entire planet between her fingers, holding it up in front of her eyes.

For the first time in a week, the skies were clear, the view of the galaxy around them a distant blur made of the inside of their carrier's home. But there was none who could enjoy that sight, the entire planet was focused on the oceans of blue staring back at them. The planet dwarfing eyes of the alpaca regarding the planet with amusement.

"Listen hun~" July said softly. "Your planet is getting a view my fans would pay billions for soooo~ show a little appreciation. Just because you're a tiny cutie doesn't mean I'm gonna take lip from you."

Any attempt to hide his shaking was fruitless. The emperor stood frozen, quivering like a leaf in the wind, hands clenched together like a panicked cup. "I-I-I-"

"I think you should apologize." July narrowed her eyes.

"Sorry!" The emperor squeaked. "Sorrysorrysorry!"

The massive eyes on the horizon lit up again. "There you go!" July glanced back to the phone camera. "You cuties probably just need some more time to adjust, is all."

"Y-yes!" He agreed, panic driven to avoid angering their carrier again.

July winked at the screen and slowly lowered her hand. The emperor watched as the small orb between her finger was placed back down towards her bosom, a single finger was enough to plunge their entire world between her impossibly massive breasts, vanishing in an instance within her cleavage as the light of the outside world vanished entirely, leaving the planet in the dark.

"There we go~" July sighed. "Now. I'm like, super busy right now soooo~ I'm gonna end the call here." The alpaca shifted her grip on the phone, holding it closer to her face. "I'll make sure to stay in touch, kitty. I got some ideas for your little planet."

All he could do was nod frantically.

July smiled. "Alrighty! Ciao!" The live feed was cut, leaving the emperor and his proconsul in the darkness of his office.

His senses slowly returned to him, the emperor felt his limbs slacken and the racing of his heart slow down. He slowly lowered himself onto the floor into a sitting position.

"I-" the proconsul piped up, having been downright cowering in the corner of the room for the past few minutes. "S-shall I g-gather the council--m-my lord?"

"Hmm?" The emperor's ear twitched. "What?" He muttered.

"T-the council?" The proconsul repeated. "T-they'll want to hear of this."

The emperor stared at the proconsul before turning his head and glancing out of his balcony door. Every now and then the overwhelming masses pressing against their planet would sway and allow a flicker of light to escape past the plush enormity of the alpaca's chest before vanishing just as quickly. An empire that had spanned thousands of years, been fought over time and time again, the result of the blood, sweat and toil of billions over countless years...now nothing but jewelry. "S-sure. Fetch me some wine as well." He whimpered.

26 notes · View notes

flintox · 1 year ago

Text

Eviction Duty. [Story + Illustration.]

"Latte, with extra cream, extra hazelnut syrup and a pinch of cinnamon." Gaius placed the warm cup on the desk carefully, along with a small brown paper bag, stained with spots of grease. "And a cheesy pastry." The towering mouse said, not daring to try to pronounce the name of the weird cheese egg bread thing he'd just delivered.

"Mhm-" Without a word the older mouse reached across the desk, grabbed the cup and took a sip without looking up from her tablet.

Gaius stood there silently, hands behind his back and a professional smile on his face. The day was almost over and he was hoping that he might be let off early or get some easy job that didn't take too much time. Usually, Miss Haytham-Trench didn't have too much for him to do so late in the day, only simple stuff like helping clean up. Miss Haytham-Trench had a bad habit of dropping pens and often had him pick them up for her. Or giving her a shoulder massage, evidently she had really bad shoulders and far too little time to go to a spa so she would have Gaius massage them for her...and her feet, and occasionally her back.

Miss Haytham-Trench glanced up from her tablet, locking eyes onto Gaius. "I'm gonna be leaving early today."

He lit up. If she was leaving early that meant he was leaving early. "Oh?"

"It's the anniversary of my marriage to my husband." She said flatly as she packed up the tablet and reached across the desk to grab her handbag.

"Nice! Congratulations!" Gaius smiled.

She smiled back as she slowly leaned forward across the desk, resting her chin on her palm and kicking up her legs, staring back at Gaius through a half lidded stare. "Are you...busy tonight, Mr. Prince?" The black suit dressed mouse leaned back, sighing softly as she ran a hand down her torso, smoothing out the creases the clothing made around her considerable curves. "I might have some...overtime assignments I need help with."

"Well uh-" He tensed up. Gaius felt his hands get clammy. "I already made plans with some friends, actually. Going to see a movie-" The mouse quickly answered, eager to escape any overtime work.

Her stare intensified, showing a hint of annoyance. "I don't think you understand." the older mouse mused as she slowly undid a top button on her shirt. "I need someone large and strong to help me~"

He swallowed back his nerves, tugging on the collar of his tight white shirt. This happened quite often. Gaius, despite being a mouse, was tall and broadly built. Miss Haytham-Trench, (or Kathrine, a first name that Gaius didn’t feel he knew her well enough to refer to her with.) had once joked about him having been a bull in his previous life before asking if he wanted to be a bull in this life too, to which Gaius had answered that he was quite happy being a mouse. Since he was the big tall strong person in the work group or friend group he was often picked out to help with heavy lifting. "S-sorry Miss." The mouse said sheepishly. "I already paid for tickets and everything."

Kathrine stared at him blankly, visibly disappointed. She quickly redid the button on her shirt and stood up. "Right. Anyway, we got a habitat unit that just missed their deadline." The dark dressed mouse said, a hint of annoyance in her tone as she leaned over her desk and wrote something on a post it note.

He blinked. "Oh?"

"I'd deal with it myself but-although I-" The shorter, older mouse began but stopped, seemingly thinking about something, almost hesitant. "No, I gotta head home early and deal with my-i mean spend time with my husband. I'm going to need you to deal with the eviction."

His tail stopped flicking excitedly. "R-really?" He stammered as his employer handed him the post it note.

"Sure. Why not." She snatched up her cup of coffee and pastry. "Just remember to lock up afterwards and don't make too much of a mess."

Gaius felt a pit form in his stomach. His boss always dealt with the evictions herself, always. She would spend hours in the safe room and would always come back out exhausted and sweaty like she'd just finished a vigorous workout, but always in a really good mood. Gaius had walked past the safe room and heard the noises of straining coming from within. "I-isn't it like-- really hard?"

"Not really." She sighed, walking past the much taller mouse. "Just make sure to do it on the center table so the other habitats can see."

"But how do i-" Gaius stammered. "How do I do it?"

Kathrine stopped, turning around to look at Gaius. She slowly looked the towering mouse up and down, lingering on his broad chest before her eyes trailed down, lingering for a moment on his crotch as she bit her lip softly. Gaius looked down, worried he might have spilled something on his pants. "Just--just get creative." She finally said as a wide smile crept across her face.

"C-creative?" Gaius repeated, adjusting his glasses.

"And do it in a way that sends a message to the others to make sure they know to keep paying." She quickly said. "See you tomorrow, 9 o' clock, sharp. I'm gonna need a massage before an early meeting."

---

He felt on edge as he typed in the code to the safe room, named so as it was the room where they kept their customers safe.

The room itself was fairly regular and not really that safe compared to other rooms aside from the keypad access needed to enter it, which everyone in the insurance office had.

The console beeped and the door slid open, allowing Gaius to step inside the room. It was a small chamber, only enough to fit a single table and five shelves, shelves housing small devices. Their clients.

It was a spin on a very simple business. Out in the vastness of the universe there were so many, ridiculously many ways to die. Not just on an individual level, entire ships, bases, towns, cities, countries and even star systems could vanish in a blink of an eye. Of course, those events were rare. Most of the time places and people would suffer a slow, agonizing death too horrible to put into words in even the most descriptive languages of the vast universe. It was an endless parade of cosmic horror out there. Unless you had money.

Through a very expensive process, richer worlds could buy safety. Or rather, insurance. For most of their worlds. It was really simple actually. Using a third party contractor offering a very specific service (and free delivery) entire continents could be compressed and downsized until they could fit in the palm of a large hand. After that, those continents could be housed in a container and kept in a remote, undisclosed location where none of the horrible things that could happen in space could possibly come for them...for a reasonable monthly price.

This room was one of those undisclosed locations. An insurance office that housed a total of 271 clients paying for the privilege of staying safe while their planets suffered some atrocious fate that would lead to their destruction.

Gaius scanned the shelves with his eyes, glancing down at the note in his hand. 8IHI. After a brief search, the mouse spotted the container he was looking for.

It was a nice looking landmass. No wider than his palm, not counting the container. With lush fields of blue plants. He couldn't remember the name of the planet it came from but Gaius could recall that they were in a big hurry to get off their planet. Something about an invading empire--or was it some civil war on their own planet. Gaius hadn't really been listening since he got distracted by the guy delivering the container. He still regretted not getting that cute lynx's number.

Carefully, he unplugged the container and removed it from its spot on the shelf and moved it over to the table. When he first started working there, the idea of holding onto something housing billions of people had him all sorts of nervous but he was used to it by now. After all, those casing were insanely durable. He dropped one on accident at least once a month and so far it hadn't caused any problems. Or at least that's what Kathrine had told him.

The mouse stood over the container. He was starting to feel a bit awkward. It was a really nice looking world and he was sure that the blue plant covered landscape probably looked amazing up close and not nanoscopic on some table. How was he supposed to do this? He'd been told to do it in a way that sent a message to the others. It sounded gruesome but according to his boss they needed the extra incentive because they needed to make sure the clients remembered why they needed to keep paying for the service. Plus, they couldn't be burdened with the extra cost of sending them back to their home worlds where they would meet the same fate anyway. There was no other way around it, that world had to be utterly destroyed.

How was the question? He couldn't just...dump it in the trash...could he? Compared to the various ways the universe could obliterate something, being chucked into a plastic bin didn't exactly scream 'incentive'. Miss H-T said to send a message.

His train of thought was derailed by a red light that started blinking on the side panel of the container. "Oh no." Gaius sighed.

Each container was fitted with a boatload of functions made to keep the continents within safe and healthy. One of those features was the ability to talk to normal sized people outside the container. A handy way to update monthly fees or exchange billing information. Gaius had heard about this from the boss. Of course the rulers of each container knew that they'd missed the deadline and would often call at the last minute to negotiate or beg. It was really sad since company policy was not to allow any sort of renegotiation. as Kathrine had said, if you give them an inch they take a mile.

Gaius gave the container a sad smile and denied the call. Best to not delay this more than he had to.

Deftly, he tapped the password into the tiny console on the side. "Pass...word...1." As soon as the last letter was input, a loud hiss sounded from the container and the glass like ceiling popped up and the steel rim clicked, allowing Gaius to slide the mechanism away and leaving the continent sitting on the small steel plate that remained.

He took a moment to examine the tiny continent closer. It had to be terrifying to be so small and he couldn't imagine how horrible the civil war or whatever they were hiding from had to be to warrant making themselves this vulnerable. In a way, going out in a controlled environment like this was probably way better than sending them back. Gaius rose to his full height. "uh-Hey!" The mouse spoke in as clear a tone as he could manage. "So uhm- Y-you have failed to keep your payment schedule and your accounts have therefore been terminated. S-sorry about that. I'll try to make this quick and painless!"

Despite his promise, he wasn't sure how to accomplish that. He could just step on them but that would leave too many areas to the sides left undamaged and he wanted to make sure there was no chance anything got left in ruins. That would bum him out. Using his hand to just flatten the continent was also an option but he wasn't sure if there was some poison stuff on that world. As pretty as that blue landscape was, it was likely super poisonous to someone not native to that world...and they didn't stock gloves at the office.

An idea popped into his head. A method that would eliminate the world as quickly and painfully as possible while also keeping to his boss’s orders of making it impactful for all the other worlds watching.

Gaius turned around, leaning his rear over the tiny continent. It was the perfect plan! His butt was large enough to cover the entire world and plush enough to make sure no little things got left behind. Plus, it was clothed so he wouldn't catch some alien poisoning and it would definitely send a message to the other worlds. He couldn't imagine there were many worlds that wanted to meet their end under someone else's end.

He softly ran a hand across a khaki pants covered cheek, giving it a firm squeeze. The mouse was just a little proud of his hind features. After years of squatting and sculpting it, why shouldn't he be? Surely, the world below would appreciate a quick and merciful end under his butt rather than whatever else the universe might throw at them.

Slowly, the mouse leaned his rear back, trying his best to keep an eye on the world on the table at the same time. He could barely see it over his shoulder, the rounded shadow of his cheeks looming over them. The tiny lights of tiny cities could be seen in the shade, with small flickers floating out from the tiny gray clusters. Often, members of the civilization would try to escape on ships after their rent time ran out. They didn't really bother dealing with those since they were too small to be an issue and would most often just get destroyed by the office air conditioning, though Gaius did inhale a gnat sized battle cruiser that got stuck in his nose once.

With a smile, he slowly lowered himself down, trying to aim his rear the best he could to perfectly cover the tiny continent fully.

*Crunch-Crrrack!*

As soon as his ass touched down, the thin bedrock plating under the continent snapped as the plush cheek covered the entire landmass. Gaius felt a small shiver as he felt the subtle crunch under his butt. If he'd been wearing anything thicker than his gray khaki pants he would likely not even have felt it. He lingered in his seat for a moment, wiggling his hips in place and feeling the remains of the world crumble under him before rising back to his feet and turning around to inspect his handiwork.

The charming little blue continent was gone, replaced with what looked like a smoothed spot of dirt on a plate. Not a single part of the continent remained.

"Huh. That was easier than I thoug-" Gaius froze, feeling a slight dampness on his cheek. Craning his neck back, he spotted the cause.

Adorning a majority of his left cheek and the entirety of his right was a large blue stain, clearly visible like the sun in the sky across the rear of his khaki pants.

"Darn!" Gaius cussed. "Crud!" The mouse quickly took his pants off and laid them across the surface of the table besides the former home to billions that he'd just sat on. He fished a handkerchief out of the breast pocket of his shirt and tried his best to clean it off, with little success. He had no idea how the hell his employer managed to do this sort of work without any stains on her clothing. She could go through several containers in a single day and her clothes would look as clean as the morning she walked into the office in them.

As the mouse struggled to get the blue off his butt, he spotted a small slip of paper that had fallen out of his pocket in the commotion of finding his handkerchief. The post-it note his boss had given him earlier. IHI8.

He blinked a few times, turning the note around a few times. Gaius glanced up at shelf IHI8, spotting another container there. An unplugged container. "OH crumbs!"

In a panic, the mouse paced around for a moment. Kathrine was gonna kill him or worse, fire him!

Thinking fast, Gaius hopped over to shelf IHI8 and grabbed the container, rushing with it over to shelf 8IHI and plugging it in there. Tiny lights lit up inside the container, making the small green continent inside slightly more visible. Surely his boss wouldn't notice it, right? "D-don't tell my boss about this-please?" Gaius whispered to the container.

Glancing over his shoulder, the mouse quickly moved back over to the table in the center of the room and hopped back into his pants, quickly throwing the remains of world 8IHI into the trash and putting away the container to be used for another world before heading out of the room, heart pounding in his chest.

Maybe he should call in sick tomorrow...

18 notes · View notes