Today is opposite day. I own iz. Kneel before the creator, you fools.

—-

Gaz stirred the spoon mindlessly around her bowl, with her free hand pressed against her cheek. she separated the sugar puffsh from the inferior wheat puffsh and tried to scoop all of the former in her utensil, to no avail. Gaz gave a small frown, and began pushing the sugar puffsh to the bottom of the bowl, imagining she was drowning her enemies.

Breakfasts became very quiet. Lunches and Dinners were quiet and—dare she admit—very lonely.

Gaz pushed her cereal aside, losing her appetite—it had gone soggy. She remembered how she used to hate eating with the family, there was no peace or quiet. Dib would open his stupid flaps, spouting like a madman, and the old recorded transmissions from dad would go faulty, repeating the same phrases over and over. Family nights were not so different either, the only thing being Membrane's awkward conversations that would always lead to something scientific or scholarly.

Yes, she had hated it, but it was all she had.

"Okay, stop with the emo thoughts," Gaz said to herself, "I should... just watch tv."

She made her way into the living room, and threw herself on the couch, making herself comfortable on her favorite edge. She grabbed the remote and tuned in to channel 9, and as the static dissolved, she saw her father on the news.

"It has been exactly 3,285 halt-days— make sure you have the membrane approved calendars to translate halt days to actual days passed, that's 9 weeks—since the waves, and still we have to solution to advance forward! However, since you all know that no aging occurs, you should continue to embrace your immortality...until we find a solution! This week we plan to launch a new-"

"Oh, give it a break dad." Gaz mumbled over her father's speech.

Professor membrane, somehow, managed to spend more time at work than he usually did, trying to solve the elusive case of the hiatus waves. Gaz was lucky to see him come home at the brink of midnight, if she could stay up that late, and even more lucky if he even yawned a hello to her.

And although he managed to construct a calendar that would put the mayans to shame, he forgot there was such a thing as family nights. Not that Gaz was counting, but today would have marked the 27th family night since the hiatus.

Gaz had an awful taste in her mouth, and something moist materialized around her eyes, threatening to spill over...

Ah, the toxic fumes from Dib had finally made their way downstairs. Gaz growled and whipped out an air freshener from thin air, spraying madly around the room, she hung multiple air patches to the fan, she turned on the many wax melting light stands near the walls. To many, it would seem like overkill, but Gaz knew better at this point in time. She even tested how long a living creature (she used her father's many lab rats from the basement) could withstand the fumes— 27 seconds. She went so far as to calculate how dense the fresheners's scent would have to be to counter Dib's Dibby Dib fumes exactly.

She deeply inhaled the now lavender scented room, and gave a sigh of relief, briefly fluttering her eyes. Lavender was such a lovely scent. Her expressions changed quickly, and she shouted at the top of her lungs, "DIB! Stop obsessing over Zim! He's probably dead at this point! Give up!"

"Never! I can't stop watching the feeds... I bet Zim is planning his most dastardly scheme yet! I think his absence is actually connected to the waves somehow!"

"Wha- that's stupid! You're stupid! Now would it kill you to at least take a shower?" Gaz was actually surprised Dib had responded to her threats, he hadn't said much since the waves began to form. Still, she was pretty pissed at him.

Dinner was nothing special. Gaz tried to keep herself company by modifying her bodyguard bots afterwards, but quickly grew bored.

"Ugh, maybe I should try playing another new game or something." she grumbled.

"Wait!" she shouted, to no one at all, "Why not limit myself to just one new game when I have the time to play every game ever made? There's like, tons of console games, online games, fan-games, I won't be bored! Bored to the point where...I'm talking to myself." She flushed in embarrassment at the last remark.

Gaz began to hike upstairs in resolve—not before packing some extra freshener with her of course—until she stopped in surprise, seeing her father come in through the front door.

"Dad?! You've...never been home this early."

"Daugh—Gaz, sweetie," Membrane corrected himself, Gaz merely lifted her brow in confusion at the gesture," The shrink the government forced me to hire at the Laboratory talked with me today, and she helped me realize that I should set aside my work time to be here to emotionally support you and raise you like I should."

Something stirred within Gaz, something hopeful and longing. Yet, she felt the urge to make a biting remark, "She told you something scientific about being a parent and that convinced you, huh?"

"The lack of using affectionate terminology stunts a child's well being, and statistically, my negligence could lead to malnutrition and unhygienic habits, or even worse, talking to yourself!" Membrane's fists, once more, shook avidly in emphasis.

Gaz slightly smiled and asked rhetorically,"Wow, good thing you'll stop these things from happening huh dad?"

Professor Membrane kneeled, and said, "Yes, Gazlene, and I will always be here from five to ten at night and at eight to nine in the morning from now on! Now come here and give your father an embrace that should release dopamine and heighten our bond!"

Gaz made her way across the room to her father, saying,"Uh, it's a hug. The embrace thingy is called a hug, dad."

It took 3,285 halt-days, but things were finally turning around for the better. For the first time in a while, Gaz felt really… good. Good that her dad was finally trying to come back into her life, in his weird, sciencey way.

And especially good about having something to do until the waves ended.

—

ehhhhh I kinda have mixed feelings about this chapter. I just really only wanted to get the two main events in Gaz's life aside so I can get to the good stuff.

It's kinda funny how zim's presence canonically affects how time flows in universe huh?

as alway please give me some pointers, reviews, random smashing from the keyboard, it all helps! :D and I'll try to make some sort of scheduled updates, I'm thinking every other day or so, maybe just on the weekends. I dunno, haha.

Catch ya'll later!