Snapshots From A New Strangetown
Chapter Ten – Taking the Fall
Circe smiles as she walks down the Road to Nowhere. Normally, she would have the carpool drive her home from Strangetown Hospital, but since it was a surprisingly comfortable seventy-three degrees out, she decided to leave work early to walk home. She turns the corner at Tesla Court, her 30th birthday celebration at work still fresh on her mind. Circe doesn't care much for parties, but she loved the attention that was lavished upon her at lunchtime. It has been a while since Loki gave her much attention, and she is beginning to suspect there is a cheeky reason why.
"Loki!" Circe chimes, walking into the main archway of their estate. She scans the area, met by an empty first floor. "Huh," she says puzzled, hands perched on her hips, "I guess he's not home." Circe walks past the grand staircase, about to pour herself a glass of rosé when the sound of Loki cursing catches her attention. "Loki?" Circe squeaks, slowly grabbing onto the handrail and making her way up the stairs.
"Shit!" Loki curses as Circe pushes her way into the master bedroom. He yanks the blankets up, attempting to conceal his naked body and flashes her a nervous smile from the mattress, "Uh, hey honey," Loki speaks, doing his best to remain casual, "What are you doing home so early?"
Circe steps forward, staring down at the giant, oddly-shaped lump underneath the blanket. Loki follows her eyeline and laughs apprehensively. "Loki," Circe states, staring back at her husband, her blood pressure rising as he smiles at her, "Are you cheating on me?!"
"It would appear so. Yes," Loki answers honestly.
Circe clenches her fists, her face growing redder by the moment, "And you're sleeping with them in our bed?!"
"Look," Loki replies, holding his hand out in front of him, "as bad as you think this is…it's probably much worse."
Circe leans forward and grabs the comforter, causing Loki to immediately panic. He moves abruptly, accidentally kicking the lump.
"Oww! Loki!" the sim cries as Circe rips off the bedsheets, uncovering Vidcund, who is rubbing his freshly-injured face. Vidcund looks to Circe and sweatdrops, "Uh…hi?" he waves.
"What the hell?!" she shrieks.
"It's-it's not what it looks like!" Loki retorts, the pair covering up their indecency, "This is for an experiment."
Circe folds her arms, raising her eyebrow at them, "An experiment?" she repeats.
"Yeah!" Loki replies, not giving it a second thought, "We're uh, testing the effects of nakedness on hyper-optical material to study the long-standing consequences of uh…" Loki turns to the side and nudges an anxious Vidcund in the shoulder, "Come on, you're the biologist. Help me out here!" he cries, waving his arms in front of him. Vidcund shrugs, causing Loki to turn back to Circe with a sigh, "Okay, I'll admit it. I got nothing. – Wait!" Loki exclaims, pausing for a moment as his brain starts to churn, "No, no, sorry. I thought I had something there, but it was just a false alarm."
"Oh, you are unbelievable!" Circe growls. She storms out of the room. Loki gets up and immediately chases after her. Sensing his presence, Circe stops at the end of the hallway, her heart beating rapidly in her chest as she faces the spare bedroom. "How could you do this to me, Loki?" she wonders, her back turned towards him, "I loved you!"
"What?" Loki squeaks, "No, you didn't."
"Yes, I did," Circe responds, turning towards him.
Loki looks up, seeing tears in Circe's eyes for the first time since they met. "Well...shit," he whispers.
Back in the present day, Loki is sitting on his bed early Saturday morning, feeling a tinge of empathy towards Circe after thinking back to that very day. Suddenly, Loki hears a bloodcurdling scream coming from the kitchen. Loki jumps out of bed and races down the staircase.
…
Five minutes earlier, Vidcund paces down the staircase, whistling a happy tune after waking up at his standard time, seven o'clock, on a Saturday morning. He stops in the living room and spies the discarded salt grinder from the night before on the ground. Vidcund picks it up, giving a puzzled look as he wonders how it ended up back in the house in the first place. He shrugs, goes over to the sink, and rinses it off before setting it down on the counter and pouring himself a cup of coffee.
Vidcund sits down at the table, takes a sip, and yawns. He rubs his eyes, smiling when Loki approaches the table. "Hey honey, you're up early," Vidcund comments, watching as the sim takes a seat across from him. Loki leans forward, releases a monstrous growl, and starts chewing on the table. Vidcund shrieks and springs up from his seat, quickly grabbing the cutting board to shield himself.
Suddenly, the real Loki pops into the kitchen, looking frightened. "What? What is it?" he asks, before stopping to survey the scene. He narrows in on the kitchen table, "Ah, I see you met Loki 2.0," Loki states, walking over to the clone and petting him gently on the back.
"What is Loki 2.0?" Vidcund questions, barely moving down the cutting board.
"Well, I think it's pretty obvious, Vidcund," Loki huffs, a hand perched sassily on his hip, "He's a nearly-perfect clone of me."
"He's eating the sofa," Vidcund squeaks, cowering a tad as he points to the clone, who is sure enough chewing on their expensive living room couch.
Loki sighs and grabs the squirt bottle from the end table. He walks over to the sofa and sprays Loki 2.0, who starts hissing as he does so.
"Well, I still need to work out a few kinks," Loki informs Vidcund as the latter follows Loki into the living room, "But trust me, he's anatomically correct," he states. Behind him, Loki 2.0 is chewing on the right sleeve of his classic, navy-blue Loki sweater.
"God, I really don't want to know how you know that," Vidcund groans.
"What kind of scientist would I be if I didn't?" Loki ponders, "I already ran all the tests, so now we've come to your part."
Vidcund facepalms, "Oh no."
"All you gotta do is sleep with the clone and tell me if it's the same as sleeping with me," Loki explains.
Vidcund crosses his arms, "No," he answers firmly.
"Come on, you don't have to go all the way! As long as you make it to third base, it should be a fairly accurate assessment-"
"Oh God, please tell me that is not what I think it is!" Vidcund cries, eyes wide as he points to a yellow puddle that has just appeared on the ground.
"Relax, it's just oil," Loki claims, waving it off. He crouches down to inspect it, sniffing the wooden floor. "No, wait. It's urine," he declares, examining it closer, "Yeah, that's definitely urine."
Vidcund steps back, holding his nose. "Get rid of that thing today! I don't want it going anywhere near the kids," Vidcund commands, "And don't just get rid of it by 'releasing it into the wild', cause last time you did that, it just came back here!"
Loki sighs and rolls his eyes, "Fine," he agrees reluctantly.
"Good," Vidcund replies, "Now we're out of here!" Vidcund stomps up the staircase and wakes up the twins, rounding them into the car from the back entrance.
"Wait!" Ceres cries, stopping before she gets into the vehicle, "Should I bring Professor Cuddles?" she squeaks, her face filled with concern.
Vidcund sighs and steps back from the car's open doorway, "Yes, you probably should."
…
Fifteen minutes later, Vidcund, Ceres, and Atom have successfully gotten out of the car and are preparing to trudge up Cover Up Road's hill. Ceres is holding her cinnamon-colored hamster, Professor Cuddles, in his little hamster habitat while Atom carries a small baggy of Professor Cuddles' food.
"Here, sweetie. Let me take him," Vidcund states, grabbing the glass hamster habitat from his daughter.
Ceres nods, "Okay."
A few minutes later, the trio has safely made it up the hill and are walking onto the old Curious brothers lot. Vidcund sighs as he stops at the entrance, giving Atom permission to ring the doorbell.
"Hey, Vidcund!" Pascal beams, throwing open the door a mere five seconds later, "What brings you guys to this side of the neighborhood?" he wonders, stepping back from the doorway to let everyone into the house.
Vidcund sighs as he gives Professor Cuddles' habitat back to Ceres, "Loki," Vidcund answers, a hint of irritation in his voice, "He uh, has to dispose of one of his experiments," he explains as Atom and Ceres show Tycho Professor Cuddles. They set his habitat on the kitchen counter.
"Another radioactive super clone?" Pascal guesses.
Vidcund shakes his head, "No, I think it's just a normal one this time."
"Ah," Pascal replies, scratching his chin in a ponder, "Well, come on, I'll give you guys the grand tour!" he insists, gesturing the trio towards him. Pascal takes two steps back and stops in the center of the TV room, "This is the closest thing we have to a living room," he announces, throwing his arms up in emphasis, "As you can see, I renovated it so that you can watch the same channel on six different screens!" he exclaims, gesturing to the wall of flat-screen televisions, all of which are displaying photos from the Curious family albums, "When they're not in use, I like to use them for electronic picture slideshows."
Vidcund nods.
"And this is our toilet," Pascal beams, leading Vidcund and the twins into the bathroom a few minutes later, "It's a mini black hole," he states, pointing down at the abyss in the porcelain white pot. Vidcund leans forward for a closer look; Pascal quickly holds him back, "Don't get too close now," he warns.
"What's this?" Vidcund asks, pointing to the stack of papers sitting on the toilet lid.
Pascal smiles and picks them up. "This is my edgy, new crime thriller!" he claims, holding up the transcript, "It's about a mouse named Detective Doodle Daring who plots to discover who really stole the cookies from the cookie jar. I write it on the toilet," he adds, proudly.
"Wow. Ookay," Vidcund says, taking a step away from his brother.
"And what tour would be complete without showing you your old room!" Pascal beams, pacing down the hallway and throwing open the door to Vidcund's old bedroom. Vidcund steps into it, the former décor replaced with medieval-style furnishings. He turns to Pascal, looking very confused. "It was Circe's room after you left," Pascal explains, playing with his hands.
"Ah."
"Hey, Pascal!" a familiar voice rings through the residence as the woman in question walks through the back door, "Can I borrow some sugar? Erin and I are making cookies," Circe says as Pascal and Vidcund wander into the kitchen from the hallway, "Keep in mind, it doesn't really matter what you say cause I'm still going to borrow it anyway," she notes, scrounging through the cabinets.
"Uh, sure," Pascal replies.
Vidcund locks eyes with his brother and points his head in Circe's direction, urging Pascal to say something. Pascal shakes his head no and mouths, 'Are you crazy?'
"Fine. Then I will," Vidcund whispers as he slowly approaches the kitchen counter. He takes a seat on the barstool in front of the microwave, "Hey Circe? I'm really sorry about yesterday," he states sincerely, "Sometimes Loki can be kinda stubborn."
Circe sighs and turns to Vidcund, her scarlet nails digging into the bag of sugar, "You know Vidcund, you can't keep apologizing for your boyfriend's shitty behavior," Circe says with a huff, "If Loki was really sorry, he would apologize himself."
"Come on, Circe," Vidcund begins, "We both know that's never going to happen."
"Exactly," she groans, "So I don't accept your apology. Now if you'll excuse me, I have cookies to bake," Circe smirks, before pivoting on her heel and sashaying out of the open doorway.
Pascal turns to Vidcund and shrugs.
…
Later that night, Vidcund is sitting on his bed in his pajamas, his head spinning after the bizarre day he just experienced. Loki sighs as he climbs in next to him, pulling the covers over his body as he turns to his boyfriend.
"Well, I got rid of the clone," he states, rather pleased with himself.
"Good," Vidcund replies, giving a small sigh of relief, "Wait. This isn't going to be like that thing where you say you got rid of the clone, but you really didn't, and then it comes back in the middle of the night and switches places with you and ties the real you up in the basement, is it?"
Loki shakes his head, "No."
"Oh, thank God!" Vidcund beams, getting under the covers.
"Yeah," Loki nods, "I sent him someplace where they could really use him."
Vidcund tilts his forehead ponderously, "Where?"
The scene flashes to an event that occurred earlier that day as Loki 2.0 sits at Loki's old desk at SimSanto Incorporated, the sun seeping in from the workplace window. Loki 2.0 is chewing on his sweater sleeve when a peeved Crystal walks over to him carrying her clipboard.
"Loki," Crystal complains, hand on her hip, "how many times do I have to tell you that you no longer work here?"
Loki 2.0 turns and hisses at her.
"Whoa!" Crystal cries. She jumps back, swiftly holding her clipboard up as a shield.
Back in the present, Vidcund is staring out at the bedroom wall, deep in thought. "You know," he states, smiling at his boyfriend, "besides all the hissing and chewing, Loki 2.0 was pretty similar to you."
"Yeah, I thought so, too," Loki agrees, "With enough work, I should be able to iron out all the kinks for next time," he states as Vidcund flashes him a look of fear that seems to scream, 'Oh dear God!' nearby. Loki sighs, his mind going a mile a minute as he thinks about everything that happened that weekend, "Do you think I made a mistake dumping Circe?" he wonders, the question immediately catching Vidcund's attention, "I mean, are you really happy being with me?"
"Okay, first of all, ouch," Vidcund responds, somewhat offended by Loki's first question, "And to answer your second question: Surprisingly, yes, I am happy to be with you."
"Aww!" Loki coos, wrapping Vidcund into a hug. Vidcund sighs as Loki holds him close, "Hey, I almost forgot to tell you. While you were gone, some strangely-shaped packages were delivered to the house."
Vidcund pushes back slightly, his stomach sinking at the news. "Strangely-shaped packages?" he repeats, his face filled with worry.
…
Vidcund slowly walks down the staircase, doing his best to avoid waking the twins at eleven at njght. Loki is following close behind him carrying a baseball bat. The pair make it down the stairs and walk over to the front door. Vidcund carefully eyes the packages that are sitting next to the doorframe. The packages are up to his waist in height and are covered in light brown packaging paper. Vidcund slowly leans forward and tears one open. He steps back, spying a pair of handlebars sticking out of the paper.
"It's a bike," Vidcund awes, tearing the rest of the paper off to reveal the bicycle. The bike is bright purple and has Ceres' name printed on the body of it. Vidcund leans forward and tears open the package next to it, which is the same-sized bike but in red and has Atom's named printed on it instead. Vidcund turns to Loki, who is still holding up the baseball bat, "Did you order bikes for the twins?" he wonders.
Loki shakes his head, setting the bat down next to him. "I don't think so," he replies, spotting a piece of folded paper resting on the ground underneath the packaging paper. He points down at it, causing Vidcund to bend over and pick it up.
Vidcund opens the card and reads it over. "It says it was ordered from 95 Bard Boulevard," he states, the connection dawning on him almost instantly, "They're from Lazlo," he states, turning to Loki with a shrug.
"Oh," Loki squeaks, "I guess he got your message, huh?"
"I guess so," Vidcund nods, sitting down next to the bikes, "What am I going to do, Loki?" he wonders as Loki joins him on the floor, "I can't give the twins these bikes. They don't even know Lazlo exists! What am I supposed to say to them?"
"That you have another brother and he's back in your life?" Loki suggests, as if it's obvious.
Vidcund turns to the wall, letting out a heavy sigh. "Man, that's going to be an awkward conversation. I can picture it now: 'Hey kids? Remember how I told you to always be nice to each other? Turns out Daddy's a hypocrite, shut his own brother out of his life ten years ago, and wrote him out of the timeline!'" he states mockingly.
Loki chuckles before staring at Vidcund lovingly, "I think you'll be fine."
"Maybe," Vidcund sighs, "Now, let's put these bikes away, so I can plan out what I'm going to say to them-"
"WOW!" Ceres chimes from the top of the staircase, "New bikes!" she proclaims. Vidcund and Loki freeze in place, "Atom, wake up! Dad got us new bikes!"
Vidcund turns to Loki and sighs, stepping away from the bicycles so the twins can get a closer look. Atom and Ceres race down and hug the brightly-colored bikes.
"Actually, they're uh, from your uncle," Vidcund speaks, rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly feeling quite awkward.
"Uncle Pascal got us new bikes?" Atom repeats, getting on his bicycle, "That is so cool!"
"Uh, no," Vidcund replies, "They're from your Uncle Lazlo."
Ceres tilts her forehead, "You mean the guy on TV with the summer camp?"
"What? No," Vidcund states, shaking his head as Loki snickers behind him, "Atom, Ceres," he begins, turning to both of his adoptive children, "I have a younger brother, and I never told you guys about him because…I…" Vidcund stops abruptly, having a hard time pushing the words out.
"Because I made him cut your uncle out," Loki jumps in, causing the trio to stare at him in puzzlement.
"What?" Vidcund squeaks.
"Yeah," Loki says, giving Vidcund a piercing stare, "I didn't like him, so I made your father choose, which is a horrible thing to do, so don't ever do that, kids," Loki says, quickly moseying out of the room before they can respond.
Vidcund quickly trails Loki into the kitchen, stopping him once he reaches the refrigerator door. "What are you doing?" Vidcund whispers, standing in front of the vintage, silver appliance, "Why would you take the fall?"
"Because," Loki begins, sighing as Vidcund continues to block the fridge, "the kids already don't respect me. But if they don't respect you, then we'll lose all leverage as parents," Loki states, "And we're really going to need that going into the teenage years."
Vidcund steps forward, tears forming in his eyes as he pulls Loki into an embrace, "Thank you."
Loki nods, swings open the refrigerator door behind Vidcund, and takes out the milk. He hugs him back and smiles, "No problem."