Chapter IX. Eris & Hermes
"Uh, is this one...the plushy you really want? This kitty is the only one with a plastic bag on the head."
Frollo's voice snapped Jafar from his own sorrow. Jafar raised his head from the plushy in which he buried himself. There was a plate serving a sunny-side-up egg and some bacon on the desk, and another brown-and-white tabby plushy with a plastic bag like a helmet on his head was next to the plate.
"...Frollo?" Jafar reached his hands to hold the tabby plushy tightly, the tabby plushy stared back silently.
-Who turned Frollo into a plushy? What is even happening? Jafar thought to himself, but he had a hard time processing the sight in front of him further.
"Look, I've asked you what would you want for breakfast thrice, and you didn't give me an edible answer. So I made you a sunny-side-up egg and bacon, and I found you the plushy." the tabby plushy in Jafar's hands spoke in Frollo's voice, while his voice was nonchalant as usual, Jafar could hear a hint of frustration.
"Frollo, is that you?" said Jafar in fear and confusion, he even shook the plushy a bit.
"Yes, I am here with you. Do you need some water? We can have breakfast when you feel better." said the plushy, familiar baritone voice trying to calm Jafar down, but he was still panicked and anxious.
"-NO FROLLO! WHO TURNED YOU TO BREEZY FROM NEKO ATSUME?" Jafar hugged the plushy, lashing out a terrific wail.
"I...what?" the voice was bewildered by Jafar's bizarre behaviour.
"Hades ignored me at dinner, and now you are turned into a plushy...no...why did the world HATE ME?" a tear-up Jafar held the plushy next to his cheek, chocking up with his balderdash, "The best thing about you is your breakfast, don't...don't turn into a plushy...please..."
Suddenly, a hand intruded into Jafar's sight, grabbing the plushy away from Jafar. A face of a middle-aged man entered the sight with that tabby plushy-Jafar was pretty sure that the man in front of him was the Death, the destroyer of the world, and now he held the plushy to hostage.
Did the disappointed man look exactly like the Frollo he knew? Maybe, but Jafar was CONFIDENT that that man ain't Frollo himself.
"...You can't just drink like it's the last day on the earth when I am not aware. Anyway, you still have another white plushy next to you. You can eat breakfast later." spoke the figure who had robbed the tabby plushy from Jafar-with the voice of Frollo.
Jafar watched in devastation as the figure took the tabby plushy and walked away, his sight blurred by a lens of tears.
Frollo himself was pacing in a peaceful corner of the park where he first met Hades. He was talking on his cell phone, frowning most of the time.
"Yes, he mistook the plushy for me when I tried to communicate with him." said Frollo like he was merely doing a mission report, "...Pardon me, I do not understand what 'block' means. Do you mean you tried to physically assault him and he 'blocked' you? Did I misunderstand you?"
"Bruh, 'block' means he did a bit boo-boo so now I can't send him any messages through my account on Discord." Frollo could imagine Hades' vivid body language.
"So it's a mistake." said Frollo calmly, "A technical one?"
"He...look, man, you've got to use your imagination here, ok?" Hades explained the whole thing like he was some second-hand car salesman, "So if someone harasses you on the Discord...I mean 'if', get me?"
"...Yes."
"And you don't want to receive such fopdoodle's message ever again. What will you do? You press a little tiny and awesome button called 'block'. Then boom! No more harassment from that particular account! Is that clear enough for you?"
"...Did you harass Jafar?" Frollo sensed something off in Hades' voice, so he asked.
"...Look, you...you missed the point, ok?" Frollo could hear Hades swallowing as he tried to argue, "I just happened to send him many gifs...I mean, 'moving meme'. It is not qualified as harassment in my book, and it should never be qualified as harassment in anyone's book."
"How many 'moving memes' did you send to Jafar?"
"Hey, you know what? You should try not to bother too many details in your life. Or others', in this case." Hades dodged Frollo's question and tried to play it like he was annoyed.
"...You called me in the first place." Frollo replied in a deadpan voice, "Do you still have his phone number?"
"No, no...I WON'T call himself just to say 'I am sorry, you little pathetic summer camp professional Youtuber'..."
"Wait until afternoon, after he is sober-Apologize to him, say you're sorry that you sent him too many moving memes, and don't ask me to deliver the message. Say it to himself like a mature man." Frollo whispered to the phone like a hissing viper waiting for chances to strike, "Am I understood?"
"No, man, I won't call him first. You gotta tell him to unblock..."
Not until Hades finished his sentence, Frollo hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket. His face fell after the call as he took the narrow path in the park, the path which in leaves no step had trodden black.
Frollo returned to the dorm with a plastic bag in his hand. The first thing in his sight was the blood stain on the golden casing, shining as ever under the scarlet sunset. "I could clean that later," he thought.
Jafar still lay on the couch, sleeping soundly as if nothing in the world could wake him. Frollo watched the peaceful rhythmic rise and fall of Jafar's chest, thinking to himself: "How long has Jafar slept now?"
Frollo sat next to his unconscious dormmate and put every component on the desk from his plastic bag, one by one. He assembled the pieces, connecting headers to pins and pins to headers with his delicate touch. Moments later, he pulled a small welding gun from the plastic bag, as he soldered wires onto the contraption in his hands.
He brought his laptop to the living room, putting on his reading glasses-despite being relatively old and not familiar with "Discord", "Meme", or "block", he still knew some other technology-just that Jafar or Hades would consider it "old-fashion".
A deadly "old-fashion". Frollo thought to himself, a smirk forming across his lips.
He had put his self-made bug in the farthest corner of the dorm for testing when taking his laptop back to the living room. He plugged in the earphone, and he could hear every sentence spoken by their neighbours-greetings, details of living, and farewells. Nothing too interesting for Frollo, but at least the bug was functioning, that was all he cared about now.
He could tell Hades that he wanted to perform some music again. Maybe he could lie to him that the piano required tuning for the best music, and told Hades "I am afraid that you would find the process of tunning boring, and the tuning forks are unpleasant to hear. You could leave for now." Then he could snuggle the bug inside the piano, it seemed like only Frollo would play it anyway.
Even though Jafar had told him not to do it, he still couldn't help himself-Jafar indulged himself in alcohol a little bit too much, Hades let his childishness get the best of him, only he was the one who could bridge their relationship. "First, I have to bug Hades' house to investigate why Hades left his career in the first place. I MUST."
-Am I a bastard who commits shady crimes just to fulfil something missing in my heart? Maybe. But as long as it could help Jafar and Hades make up their relationship, I might look less sinful in the eyes of the Lord.
Frollo reached for the Bible in his chest pocket, letting fingers linger on the edge of the book, the superficial cut on his finger still itched.
However, Jafar's sudden moan abruptly broke Frollo's tangling thought. With lightning speed, Frollo clicked on the Chrome icon, upholding the appearance that he was merely engaged in casual Internet browsing rather than testing his bug.
"...Frollo, what time is it now...uhhh?" Jafar's voice still carried a hint of pain.
"It's 4:32 p.m. Is there anything you need?" Frollo maintained his stoic demeanour as he responded.
"I...I had a dream that you turned into a plushy...uhhh...such a silly dream." Jafar struggled to get up from the couch, his movements hindered by a slight limp.
"Yes, it does sound silly. But who doesn't have those silly dreams?" Frollo sighed, shifting his gaze towards Jafar, who appeared lost as he turned on his phone-
"Why did I block Hades' alt on Discord? What happened?"