#this kinda reminds me of lisa frank folders

[madmaddyenby]

art based off a probably canon line c!tommy said when c!quackity visited him thumbsup

(rbs r cool n quote underneath the cut, cw for drowning and blood ments ☝️☝️)

' i always wake up in the middle of the deep sea, drowning. with with- with blood and water at the top of my throat screaming, but I never wake up- I never wake up big q, I never wake up from the nightmare that is life'

[monkeypretzel]

Back to School with Tom and Crow

A short little romp through the joys of back-to-school shopping with the ‘bots. Much credit to @fontonascreen, who helped me flesh out my idea and provided three of the funniest bits of dialogue.

“I dunno,” Mike said, squinting down at the sheet in his hand, “I don’t remember needing all this stuff back when we went to school.”

“Back when we went to school, people still believed that education was important,” Joel answered, a little sharply. “The schools actually had money to provide supplies.” Joel was always a little touchy about educational criticisms, as his parents had been teachers before their retirement, Mike recalled.

“Are you two done? I wanna go pick out my backpack! All the good ones will be gone by the time we get there!” Crow whined and tugged at Mike’s arm.

“There’s a whole aisle full of backpacks. They’re not going anywhere, honey.” Mike kept Crow’s claw in a firm grip. No one was going to get lost this Target trip. “Why do they need crayons and markers and colored pencils? And why do the colored pencils specifically have to be Crayola?”

“The influence of Big Crayon has corrupted us all,” Joel remarked dryly. “Do you want a repeat of last year? Just get the stuff on the list.”

“It’s hardly my fault I was being a smart consumer and going with the least expensive option.”

Tom piped up from his seat in the shopping cart. “Have you ever tried coloring with generic dollar store crayons, Mike? It’s like using candles. Picasso didn’t use Cra-Z-Art for his masterpieces. How do you expect my creativity to blossom if you cheap out all the time?!?”

Mike stared at Tom, eyebrow raised. “If someone doesn’t behave himself, everyone is going to lose their McDonald's trip later.” The little red robot stared defiantly back for a moment, then sighed and sank back into his seat. Crow tugged at Mike’s arm again. “That goes for you, too, Crow.”

“But Daaaaaad -”

Mike snorted. “You only play the Dad Card when you know I’m right.”

“Let’s split up,” Joel suggested, grabbing another cart. “You and Tom get the school supplies, and I’ll take Crow to get his backpack.”

“Nuh-uh,” interrupted Crow. “I wanna go with Mike.” The man in question looked down at Crow. He’d been awfully clingy lately, choosing Mike over Joel in almost every situation. Mike filed that away to think about later.

“Fine,” Joel answered, his patience already fraying before they even got started. “Do you want to ride in the cart, Crow?”

“Only babies ride in the cart!”

“Hey!” Tom protested.

“Well it’s true!”

“McDonald's, guys?” Mike reminded the pair. They shut up immediately. “Tom, same black messenger bag like last year?” he asked.

Tom nodded. “It’s much more grown up than some baby backpack!”

“Hey!” It was Crow’s turn to protest.

“Enough. We’ll meet up in front of the cleaning supplies. Give me the list,” Joel said, plucking it out of Mike’s hand. “How you always end up with the easy job, I don’t know,” grumbled Joel, adjusting his glasses and giving the paper the once-over. Mike glanced down at Crow, once again straining with impatience.

One hour later…

“OK, you’ve got your Beauty and the Beast notebook – do you want a Toy Story one too? You need two different ones.”

“That’s for babies,” said Tom disdainfully. “How about X-Men?”

Joel scanned the shelves. “Sorry, buddy, seems like you’re outta luck on that. Harry Potter?”

“No. Unless it’s got the guy turning to ash on it! That’d be cool!”

“I think not. Monsters Inc.?

Tom tilted, considering. “Any with just Sully?”

Digging through the disorganized mess on the shelf in front of him, Joel located one and held it up for Tom. “This good?”

“It’ll do. I still want -” Over Joel’s shoulder Tom spied the Trapper Keepers. “Joel! Joel! Joel! I want the Trapper Keeper with the unicorn on it, right over there!”

“You know the school says no Trapper Keepers, Tom. Plain, solid color, one-inch three ring binder, that’s all.” Joel had memorized the list in the first fifteen minutes of arguing with Tom.

“But I want a unicorn! I want a rainbow unicorn, and that Trapper Keeper is the only one left! Please? Please? I’ll keep it at home for homework!”

Joel looked up at the ceiling and counted to ten while Tom begged. Taking a deep breath he pushed the cart past temptation and stopped in front of the folders.

“Here’s a Star Wars folder. Do you want a Star Wars folder?” Joel asked as he held one out.

“Not THAT one. Do you want me to be depressed every time I look at it?”

Joel glanced down at Hayden Christensen’s image. “Good point.” He tossed it back on the pile, then spied a burst of color on the next shelf up.

“You wanted a rainbow unicorn.” Joel grabbed a handful of folders and threw them in the cart. "Here's a pile of Lisa Frank folders. Go nuts."

Two hours later...

Mike sagged over the shopping cart and glanced at his watch for the hundredth time. “C’mon, Crow, just pick one already! Joel’s gonna kill me for letting you take this long.”

“I’m almost done! It’s a choice between this one,” Crow hefted a backpack with a picture of Spider Man shooting a web in his right claw, “and this one,” nodding at the pack in his left claw that featured a puffy, 3-D close-up design of Spider-Man’s suit.

Exaggeratedly Mike slowly turned to look up the aisle, then down, at the wall of backpacks in front of the two. "Why does it take you two hours to pick out a backpack if you just end up getting a Spider-Man one again?"

"I might want a different one! You don't know!" Crow snapped.

“Well, I do know now, because you’ve got two Spider-Man backpacks in your hands.”

“Which one do you like better?”

“I don-” Mike caught himself. He’d get out of here faster if he expressed an opinion. “The one with the picture.”

“I don’t know,” said Crow, “I kinda like the other one better.”

“Then pick the other one, and let’s go!”

“It’s not that easy! I have to live with this for a whole year! My reputation is on the line!”

“What reputation?”

“I happen to be the foremost Spider-Man expert in school! At least in my grade. Or my class. Anyway, it’s a heavy responsibility I carry,” Crow explained.

Mike dropped his head even lower over the cart. He took a deep breath, willed away the throbbing at his temples, straightened, and tried again.

"Crow, I thought you wanted something different this year? We could just use last year's backpack again if you're just going to get another Spider-Man."

"You can't use the same backpack two years in row! Geeze, no wonder no one liked you in school, Nelson!"

“I didn’t have a backpack. We didn’t use those yet,” Mike explained.

“So what did you carry your stone tablets around in?”

Mike’s eyes narrowed. “McDonald’s,” he reminded the gold bot.

Crow looked down. “Sorry,” he mumbled. Mike was touched. Crow did seem sorry – he hadn’t talked back.

“It’s OK, buddy,” Mike laid his hand on Crow’s shoulder. “You really gotta pick a backpack, though. So which one?”

“You really like the picture best?”

“Yeah, I do,” Mike answered warmly.

“Then I’m getting the other one!” Crow tried to toss it in the cart, but missed and hit Mike in the arm instead.

Mike picked the backpack up off the tiled floor, placed it in the cart alongside Tom’s messenger bag, and grabbed Crow’s claw before he could scamper off. “Next stop Pharmacy Department!”

“But we’re supposed to meet Joel over by the Kleenex!”

“There’s no way I’m going to make it through a trip to McDonald’s without a supersize bottle of aspirin. Or ibuprofen. Or both.”