All the decuplets were sat down for lunch.
Antauri grabbed their plates of food and sat it down in front of the kids. Most of them acted with disgust while the others started eating it. The ones who acted negatively were Jasper, Aero, Astral, Emerald, Peridot, Hermodactyloides, and Magma. Magma crossed his arms and looked away. Antauri sighed; Chiro warned him that they weren't gonna want to eat it at first.
Thankfully, Antauri had something in mind that would help. They thought it would be a perfect plan. First, try to get them to eat it and if that didn't work, then what he had planned would do the trick.
He lifted the spoon and raised it to their mouths. "Come on, my little sweethearts, eat your vegetables."
"No!" Jasper whacked it away.
Emerald, Peridot, and Hermo moved as far away from the spoon as their little bodies could. Astral and Aero just kept their mouths shut. When Antauri tried to feed it to Magma, he smacked it and he burned bright red. He shrieked and yelled. Antauri pulled the spoon away and sighed.
"You kids have to eat your vegetables. If you don't, the Cloggy Colon monster will eat you up." Antauri warned.
Magma threw an even bigger fit, Emerald and Peridot looked at each other for a moment before they started gobbling down like they were starving, and Hermo didn't even need to be asked twice, he was the only one who ate immediately and without hesitation. Jasper just cried when she was told that. Magma's booster seat went so far back that he fell to the floor. It didn't stop his wailing.
It mostly worked, but with whom it didn't work, he wasn't expecting that outcome. Soma stopped eating and looked at Antauri. His stare was blank, like he was looking through their soul. It made Antauri feel uncomfortable in a way they couldn't put into words.
"If we were eaten by it, couldn't we just eat our way out?" He asked in a monotone manner. "That way we can escape our dark, cold, painful demise and still not eat our veggies when we don't want to. It would be, after all, edible enough to eat."
Everyone but Marino and Diamond just stopped eating when he said that. They were all confused, but Antauri was bewildered and shocked he even said that. Nobody would believe him if they said that one of their five year old kids told him that. They didn't have to thankfully, Chiro walked by and heard the whole thing. He went to Antauri's side.
"When I said get them to eat their vegetables somehow, I did not mean traumatize them, Antauri." Chiro looked at him unimpressed. "And I couldn't have been the only one to have heard Soma say that."
"I'm glad you heard it too, because what on Shuggazoom…?"
Soma stared at them for a few seconds before he blinked. When he did that, he simply resumed eating like nothing happened. His tail swayed again when it stopped during his blank stare. Chiro and Antauri looked at him. They couldn't believe how he just went about everything like normal. Antauri then looked at Chiro.
"Don't tell me how to get them to eat their food, by the way. We've raised you since you were thirteen, I think I know how to do this."
Chiro opened his mouth, but then closed it right away. He could have a talk with him about raising kids later. Right now, he'd have to help them with the kids so they were eating their food.
Jasper ended up having nightmares about the Cloggy Colon Creature for the next few nights though.
Everyone had called the kids down for the presents under the tree.
Most of them rushed down to the main room so fast Antauri thought some of them would trip. It was practically a rampage of several seven year olds wanting their presents. The rest were either calmly enthusiastic or just tired and wanted more sleep. The ones who were excited ripped through their gifts after seeing who it was from and who it was for.
Soma opened his first gift carefully. He was always particular about the way he opened his gifts. If he didn't unwrap them neatly, he'd feel upset about it for the rest of the day. It was something Gibson and Sprx unintentionally learned and felt bad about for weeks. After that time, they let him be and let him unwrap it however he wanted.
After unwrapping it, he had a big smile on his face. His tail wagged immensely looking at the box. He opened it right up and took the toy out of it. It never stopped to warm Chiro's heart whenever any of the kids got this happy and excited about something. Soma looked all over the toy, looking at every little detail. When he noticed something, his smile vanished and his tail stopped moving. Chiro's smile dropped.
Oh no.
He knew he was about to say something he didn't need to. Chiro quickly went to him while Soma looked at the box and looked at the written paper on the wrapping.
"Hey uh, there's no need to look so closely at it! Do you like it?" Chiro smiled awkwardly.
Soma blankly stared at him.
"Why is Santa Claus so fucking cheap?"
"Soma Fukuzawa!" Antauri and Gibson blurted out at the same time.
Nova and Sprx snickered, but only because of the fact he swore rather than what he said. Otto simply looked away with his lips pressed together. He knew what was coming and he didn't want to be a part of it.
"He's not cheap, he sometimes needs help." Chiro explained.
Soma looked at the toy, straight at the "made in China, on Earth" label, then looked back at Chiro.
"Are you Santa?" Soma asked. "If you're cheap with the Santa presents, then you could use the money for other things more important aside from what we're given."
Fuck, nope, he was going too deep now. Sprx and Nova stopped laughing and stared at Soma. Chiro picked him up and smiled.
"No, of course not!" Chiro came close to Antauri and Gibson, now whispering. "Take your son, I'm not even touching that area."
Antauri nodded and took him from Chiro. Chiro looked at the kids and smiled.
"Go on and open up your presents, kids! You still got a lot to unwrap!"
The day continued as normal thankfully.
Gibson occasionally looked back at Soma as he did his work.
Everyone else was out and Gibson had to keep an eye on Soma. Since he wasn't difficult to handle, Gibson was able to keep an eye on him by himself. He was quiet and stayed in the same spot the whole time. All Soma did was draw and sometimes looked up. He did just that a few seconds after Gibson looked at him. He gave him a big smile. Gibson smiled back before he got up. He went over to Soma.
"Hey, do you want a little snack or something to drink?" Gibson offered. "I know you've been sitting there for a few hours."
"Yes please!" His tail wagged; his smile disappeared. "Can I talk to Mom and Dads?"
He chuckled. "Of course."
He grabbed something that Soma could drink and snack on. After that, he called everyone. It took a moment for them to pick up.
"Hey Gibson! Sorry, we're in the middle of something. What's up, Nerd?" Nova asked.
"Oh, Soma wanted to talk to you. Let me guess, city's under attack?"
"Yep, ya got it, Brain Strain."
"Don't worry, I already took the kids to Jinmay and Slingshot. They'll be getting them back to the Super Robot." Antauri answered.
Gibson sighed in relief. Good, they were safe at least.
"Sorry we can't talk much, Soma, but we love you!" Otto said.
"I love you! Oh, and Dad Antauri, I have a question."
"Can this wait until after we're back, Soma? We can't take a moment to-"
"What was it like being dead?" His tail stopped moving.
Gibson just stared at him. He knew he should do something before he kept going, but he didn't move or speak. Color drained from his face. No kid should be asking that, but then again for Soma this was a normal thing to do at least a few times a year. He forced himself to move and put his hands on Soma's shoulders.
"Soma, don't ask your father that-"
"I'm sure it was cold and lonely being dead for a bit. Could you even feel anything when you were but a spirit? Then again, I suppose clinging onto another person is the only way to not only stay close to living, but keeping your sanity intact."
"…Soma, I love you, but I don't ever want to hear you talk about this ever again."
Antauri then disconnected from the call. Soma still stared into space like nothing was in front of him. Gibson cupped his face.
"Dearie, Antauri doesn't like to talk about that. It's a sensitive topic for them. We're not mad at you in the slightest, but we don't want you or any of your siblings to ask about it, okay?" Gibson said, which seemed to snap Soma out of it.
"Uh, Gibson, you're still on the call. Whirling Destructo Saws!"
Gibson put his hand on one of his antennae. "My apologies, hun. Love you, I'll see you guys later." He hung up.
Soma put his sketchbook down and pulled his legs closer to his chest. He looked away, not wanting to make eye contact. His tail curled up and hid between the two halves of his legs.
"I'm sorry…" He started. "I don't know why I do that."
Gibson sighed. "It's fine, just… try not to do that again, okay? Be sure to apologize to your father when he comes home."
Soma just nodded. The way he looked so regretful made Gibson wonder how much of it was unintentional, if any of it was intentional at all.
Before he could dwell on it more, he heard Jinmay and Slingshot come in with the rest of the kids. Gibson picked Soma up, made sure he grabbed his son's sketchbook, and made his way to them.
Besides his apology to Antauri, Soma stayed quiet for the rest of the day.
Diamond headed towards the door, plenty of snacks in hand.
She hadn't been feeling too well, so she decided to go to the study room for some peace and quiet. Before she left, Jasper ran up to her. Her arms were wide open.
"You can't leave without good feeling hugth-"
Diamond kept her away with her hand. "I can, and I will. I'm not in the mood for hugs, Jasper, as much as I appreciate it. Touch me right now and I'll leave you paralyzed."
That made Jasper withdraw her arms and put them behind her back. She slowly stepped away.
"Paralysis is merely one of the two ways we prepare for death," Soma started, not looking away from his book. "You cannot move or speak, this being unable to do anything like the dead. Becoming numb, you won't feel a thing, like the impending inevitable end of our-"
Marino gently but firmly paid his hand on Soma's head. "You are doing it yet again, dear brother."
He blinked before nervously chuckling. "Sorry about that."
Jasper stared off for a moment. "…Do you feel numb when you're paralythed?"
"Yes, actually." Diamond confirmed.
Jasper took a moment before she looked up to Soma.
"Fuck you, now I'll be thinking about that for a while."
She walked over to her bed as she grabbed one of her handheld consoles. That look of "I hate that I know that now" resided on her face. Diamond simply looked at Soma, shrugged, then left the room. Marino looked at him. His hand went down to his shoulder.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah. It's not like I'm that wrong though."
"We know, but unlike you, we do not like thinking about death." Marino responded.
Soma couldn't deny what he said though, but then again that could be said about a lot of things he thought and felt about.
He didn't let most of it bother him though.
Just most of it.
Nova came into the room to check on Soma.
He was in the zone when it came to his art like he usually was. The art he created appeared finished, but he stared at it and wondered if there was anything he missed. She knew that was the case because she didn't see his signature or the date of completion anywhere on it just yet. Nova couldn't tell what would be missing if at all, but she didn't know the exact thing he had in mind with it. She loved that he was so artistic and creative, even if she didn't get everything he talked about when it came to art.
His tail slithered from one side to another. She sat down next to him.
"Hey, it looks great." Nova said.
He nearly jumped off the floor. Soma quickly tapped an antenna as he looked her way.
"Hey Mom! I- I didn't hear you come in!"
She halfheartedly laughed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Oh, I'm doing fine. I'm just trying to see what else should be here. It feels like something's missing and I don't know what it is…" Soma scratched his chin.
"Well hey," she smiled and put her hand on his arm, "it looks amazing either way! The colors look beautiful."
"Thanks." He smiled back at her. It soon disappears though. "You know, the thought about colors has me thinking…"
She had a feeling about what was coming, yet it didn't feel ominous or existential like it usually would despite the now blank look in his eyes.
"If we were to process part of our brains, whether naturally or forcefully, we might be able to see colors we never thought about." Soma started explaining. "Think about it, we might be colorblind without any of us realizing it because most of us assume we can see every color. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and every color in between. It seems like everything, right? What if we're wrong? There's so many different things that are naked to our eyes, optic lenses or not, so who's to say that color can't be one of them? There's possibly beauties we haven't known or imagined because of it."
He kept rambling like that and all Nova could do was listen. It had her thinking too, believe it or not. While she thought he went too deep into certain things and in a way she and everyone else thought he shouldn't, he might've had a point there. It was interesting and while she wanted to let him know he was doing it again, she wanted to hear the rest of his thoughts.
It only stopped when he blinked again and took a moment to breathe. He lightly shook his head and looked away.
"I did it again, didn't I?" He asked. "I apologize, I'm trying my best to not do it."
She patted his shoulder and shook her head. "You're fine. You might actually be onto something there."
Soma looked at Nova with widened eyes. His mouth slightly dropped, like he couldn't believe what he just heard.
"…Really?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I wanna hear more, if you don't mind talking about it."
There was a sparkle in his eye. This must've been the first time anything like that came through and had someone interested enough to listen. If Gibson was here right now, he could've been as interested as she was, but she supposed she'd have to tell him later. Maybe then the two could talk about it.
But for right now, he continued what he was talking about and Nova listened intently. It went on for a few hours until Soma ended up falling asleep. When that happened, Nova picked him up and put him to bed. She tucked him in and kept her eyes on him until the bedroom door closed.
Nova hoped that he didn't think less of himself because of how he got sometimes.
