After Devi had left Inso, she had a private chat with Nexus and discussed about the most important thing to be taken care of.
Devi stared at the holographic screen, looking as tired as she felt. The weight of responsibility pressed down on her shoulders like a lead blanket.
"We have a week then?" she asked, though she already knew the answer would crush whatever positivity she had left.
[Nexus: Yes.....]
Of course it had to be exactly a week. Why couldn't universe-ending crises come with a nice, comfortable timeline? Like a year? Or better yet, a decade?
Devi let out a sigh that could have powered a windmill. "Fine. I'll take care of things and leave soon."
She logged out before Nexus could drop any more delightful bombshells on her.
THUD.
Devi collapsed onto her bed like a deflated balloon, staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers to all of her life's problems. Spoiler alert: it didn't.
"Guess Inso will have a panic attack when he finds out," she muttered, running her hands through her hair. The secret she and Nexus had been keeping was about to drag poor, innocent Inso into their mess whether he liked it or not.
Devi shot up like a rocket. "No time to wallow"
She grabbed her jacket and bolted toward Inso's house, her mind already racing with how to break the news gently. Maybe start with "Hey, remember how you wanted a quiet life? Well, funny story..."
But just as she reached his gate, her brain finally caught up with her feet.
"Oh! I told him to rest, didn't I?" She froze mid-step, one foot hovering over the first stair.
Great job, Devi. Wake up the guy you specifically told to sleep. He'll go straight to heaven if I bombard him with this breaking news when he's already about to die from lack of sleep.
She took a deep breath, proud of her rare moment of consideration. "I'll come back later—"
"...earth elder..."
Devi's head snapped up. Wait, that voice...
Her blood ran cold as the unmistakable sound of impending chaos reached her ears:
"GRANNY, YOU'RE GOAT!"
All color drained from Devi's face. Her expression went from 'mildly concerned' to 'heavily angry' in record time.
Oh no. Oh no no no. What is that annoying guy doing here?
30 minutes earlier...
Inso have been having a peaceful battle with an unfriendly alien, when disaster struck in the form of his grandmother's kindness.
"Come down for soup, dear! And bring your... friend."
And so, through a series of unfortunate events (namely, being unable to say no to his grandmother), Inso found himself sitting cross-legged at the small dining table, with Rex beside him looking like a confused golden retriever trying to solve calculus.
The situation was already awkward enough to power a small city's worth of cringe energy, but Rex was making it infinitely worse by existing.
Inso kept shooting suspicious glances at the alien, his internal monologue running at maximum overdrive: Please don't do anything weird. Please don't do anything weird. Please don't—
Rex caught his stare and returned what he thought was a friendly 'what should I do?' expression.
What Inso saw: The most threatening death glare.
Rex's actual thoughts: "Hey, I have no idea what's happening, and your grandmother is terrifyingly strange. What should I do?"
Inso's interpretation: "The fuck you're looking at?"
Naturally, Inso responded by adjusting his glasses with his middle finger in the most passive-aggressive way possible, telepathically sending: "Right back at you, @@$@#%."
Rex, who actually understood the gesture perfectly, clenched his teeth in indignation.
Inso, seeing the teeth-clenching, also clenched his teeth in response.
GRIND. GRIND. GRIND.
From her position in the kitchen, Grandmother smiled warmly. "Oh my They must be so hungry they're practically gnawing at the table!"
Ah yes, the family talent for spectacular misinterpretation strikes again.
When Grandmother finally emerged with her legendary chicken soup, Rex found himself in uncharted territory. He watched Inso like a hawk, ready to mimic whatever this strange human ritual required.
Inso blew on his soup delicately and took a careful sip.
Rex copied the motion... and then proceeded to chug the entire bowl like he'd been wandering the desert for forty days.
Inso nearly choked on his own soup. "Doesn't that... burn?"
Rex paused, considering this. Burns? Him? The guy who regularly punched flaming monsters for fun?
CLANG!
The sound of Rex's empty bowl hitting the table made Grandmother beam with joy. "You finished already? Did you like it that much?"
Rex blinked there for a second, his brain still loading. This was it. His first real test of human communication. He'd been studying their language through... various sources which only Genz kids use. He could totally handle this.
Spoiler alert: He could not handle this.
Rex stood up, slapped the table with the enthusiasm of a game show host, and declared: "That was some GOOD SHIT! You're lowkey bussin' with the spices, earth elder!"
Silence.
The kind of silence that occurs when the earth itself pauses to rotate, to process what it just witnessed.
Inso, who had been mid-sipping his soup, became a human soup fountain, spraying chicken broth across the table.
Grandmother, bless her pure soul, just laughed. "Oh my! You must have really liked it, even though I have absolutely no idea what language you just spoke!"
Crisis averted? Not if Rex had anything to say about it.
Rex's brain, running on pure panic and half-remembered internet slang, decided this was the perfect moment for a grand gesture. He grabbed his spoon, held it above, and screamed:
"GRANNY, YOU'RE GOAT!"
And that was precisely when Devi burst through the door to witness what could only be described as "The greatest chaos recorded from before monkeys started to evolve."
The scene before her: Rex, standing on a chair, spoon raised to the heavens like he was summoning the cooking gods. Grandmother, laughing so hard she might actually ascend to a higher plane of existence. Inso, covered in soup and looking like he'd aged ten years in ten minutes.
Devi.exe has stopped working.
She stood there like a statue, her brain trying to process the sheer chaos radiating from this domestic scene.
Inso, embarrassed by the words coming out of his mouth, quickly clamped his hand over Rex's mouth, leading to a dignified dissing match where they whispered curse words and exchanged harmonious glares.
Grandmother watched their "friendly scuffle" with the delight of someone watching her favorite TV show, completely oblivious to the fact that one participant was literally from another dimension.
As the two continued their epic battle of confusion, Devi felt her heart freeze.
When did they become this close?
To be continued...