Starr Headquarters, Thursday, 9am.
[Loud shuffling. Someone yelling orders, Keyboard clicking]
"Aish, you see that right? Zoom in on that."
[Zoom and enhancing sounds]
"What is that...purple dino thing?"
"Barney lookin'..."
"You think it's a prototype? Something from R&D?"
"I checked with the research department, not one of theirs. "
[computer mouse clicking]
"Whatever it is, it's connected to the new Krow."
"Which means...?"
"We do a bit of research, then we get rid of it. Neither of them can leave HQ, even if they do escape legit. "
"Speaking of new Krow, what exactly is it?"
"Heck if I know."
"You chipped it right? What does the database say?"
"That's the thing. It says nothing. No species, no age, not even a last name! Just Krow."
"Have you looked through any of the memories?"
"All of them. There's nothing useful. Memories of a town, but if you try and go back any further, there's nothing."
"The neurologists are gonna have a fun time with this mystery"
"I just want this whole thing to be done with. They might have a ball, but I'M not having a fun time with this mystery- It's just a ton of extra work!"
"Can we speed up this process? Bring the lava up a little quicker? I got clearance from the boss"
"Sure, why not. Might as well end this season before even more things go wrong."
---
Y'know how it was mentioned that it may or may not be getting hotter?
It was one-hundred percent slowly getting hotter. Noticeably hotter. It was hot enough now that Ayngel's area by the waterfall was uncomfortably humid and the bugs that thrived there were becoming an actual problem.
Hot enough that most people opted to stay inside during the day, before realizing that being inside didn't make it better. If anything it made the heat worse.
Owen nearly considered cutting his hair, which had grown out throughout his time in the maze.
Spidey was slowly but surely being pushed out of her house's basement, where stifling heat had accumulated.
Bek was ditching her velvety purple cloak more and more often.
Soup spent any free time she had between tasks trying to create a potion of cooling.
Acho and Kyle started opting to take off their sweaters and hoodies and tie them around their waists instead.
It was inexplicable, and unbearable for Krow specifically. It refused to take Freda's jacket off for anything short of someone murdering it and prying it off its back.
Lav spent less and less time shapeshifted and things with fur and more time as cold-blooded creatures to at least make the most of the steadily rising temperatures. Specifically lizards for some reason. Lizards of every shape, size, and variety.
Draxy, who is used to living in the kind of cold that gives rise to ice spikes doesn't know what to do with the temperature shift. Krow goes around introducing the child to everyone, with reactions on a spectrum ranging from "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING?" to "OH MY GOSH HE'S SO CUTE THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE."
Either way, Draxy isn't going anywhere so people have mostly gotten used to him. Lav and Draxy have to get used to each other, being the only beings (other than Krow) that come from off-world. They develop a strange sort of friendship. Lav has someone to talk to about his slightly murderous tendencies, and Draxy enjoys having companions again so much that he doesn't question any of it.
Krow goes to visit this person named Greacie at some point, and Acho comes with it, flowers in hand. Soup is already there when they arrive re-telling the tale about Greacie having been in a coma since she fell into a frozen lake. There's a pang of sadness, but that's mostly because the people around it seem upset, not due to any actual recollection. It had honestly thought it would have some sort of memory of this place by now, but there's nothing. It assumed that this is the world it had existed in before the whole portal-memory loss escapade, but now that certainty was starting to dwindle...
And that's it. Nothing else happens. Not for a while at least. People just lay around either enjoying the weather or loathing it.
Owen is too preoccupied with Krow's reappearance to bother telling anyone the underlying issue causing the warmth. He needs to figure out what makes it tick; if its motivations and feelings have changed, and if all preconceptions have essentially been wiped away, he can't rely on what he used to know.
A week passes, then two. Then Magic's planned gathering rolls around. The word gets around to everyone there to be invited. Most accept their invitations graciously, Owen and Spidey, less so. But that's fine with Magic, as long as they actually show up.
Soup offers to provide the drinks naturally. Ayngel strings fairy lights and decorates with balloons and streamers. Greacie would usually bake, but since she's not around to, being in a coma and all, Magic picks up the slack food-wise. Bek decides to put on a show for the first time in forever, to provide entertainment. Maybe it was still too soon, but Bek had never cared about things being too soon.
Magic surveys the turnout for her little bonfire event and smiles. A real genuine smile, because this is more people than she expected! This is practically everyone in fact! Besides Guts, who hasn't been around for a while anyways, and Rasbi. Rasbi's absence is a little stranger considering she had promised to show up, but it was probably no big deal. She was probably just busy.
And it was fine that she was busy because all of the others were here! Together! Squeezed extremely tightly on benches to the point where some opted to stand, but here nonetheless. There was conversation and laughing and general happiness happening that was becoming more reminiscent of clearing two as time went on. Before its destruction of course.
Even Spidey was there! Spidey was never really anywhere these days; ever since Squidney, Oeca, and Mohwee died...
Their graves have become landmarks at this point. Integrated into their lives as if they've always been there. Then one remembers that they weren't always there and takes to avoiding them so they don't have to remember.
Magic looks around at her friends again, there haven't been so many in one place since forever, and her heart swells with a bit of pride knowing that she did this. Bek is stood in the center of everyone performing little token magic tricks. Disappearing and reappearing and "Is that a coin behind your ear?" sort of things.
The spectacle is interrupted when a bat, or a Lav rather, comes out of nowhere and snags the coin out of the air as she flips it. Magic swears she can see Krow talking to the animal, telling it to give the coin back, and is slightly taken aback when the bat actually listens and plops the coin back into Bek's hand. She isn't the only one who notices. Owen does too, and though Magic may brush it off as a coincidence Owen does not.
Food gets passed around. Stews and Sandwiches, rolls, and wraps. The outsiders run around and punch each other to work up their collective appetites. Krow is confused by the practice, but is dragged into it anyways, everyone claiming that it's clearing tradition. Spidey's shell of reservedness falls off just enough for Spidey to pick herself up and throw a few punches into the mix.
Owen, on the other hand, stays just as on guard as he has been lately, engaging in polite conversation when necessary, but no more than that. It's not that he doesn't participate. He does, just with shoulders squared and watchful eyes that are paying a little too much attention to everything. He notes the jacket Krow never takes off. He notes how some sort of animal is always hovering around it, and how that animal seems to constantly change. He notes how close Krow and Draxy are, who Krow is spending the most time with as the nights wear on.
They roast marshmallows, which Draxy and Lav descend upon like rabid animals. Draxy on a sugar high is the most terrifying yet adorable thing most people in the glade will ever witness, and Lav on a sugar high is the most non-adorable terrifying thing the Krow has ever had to deal with, especially since Krow is the only one who can hear him. To the others, there's just a random bat rolling around and Krow sighing in disappointment and a little bit of amusement.
Krow genuinely has a good time. It's the first to jump at the chance to do bad campfire karaoke. Kyle is second with his own special rendition of "The Parkour Song". With every passing moment, Krow feels a little less like an outsider. With every interaction, all of this feels a little more normal. A little bit more like home. It's terrifying because Nourke is supposed to be home.
It tries to distract itself by thinking back to the unfinished tasks in its notebook. It still has to visit Red at some point, meaning it has to go back into the maze at some point, which is not ideal. Experiences with the maze haven't been particularly great so far. But it's fine. It would feel like abandonment, to just forget Red existed, so it has to go check up on him eventually. The voices seem to think it's a pretty good idea as well.
As the nighttime ushered in the day, people one by one began to leave; off to do whatever it is people in the clearing do these days. Soup has to go check up on Greacie and Acho goes with her to drop off his daily delivery of flowers. Magic goes with them as well, but turns at the door and heads home. She refuses to see Greacie the way she is right now. It would hurt a bit too much.
Spidey turtles again, retreating back into hiding. Owen has some observations to write down before he forgets them. Kyle goes off to prepare for- he doesn't know exactly what but he has to be doing something, as a maybe leader of the clearing.
Bek, after doing what she equates to "so much hard work" decides that it's prime time for a nap. Ayngel and Krow are the ones who linger as the sun rises. Draxy curls up into Krow's side as the sugar crash takes its toll. It is a bit too warm, but everywhere in the clearing is so warm these days that this is pretty okay. Lav shifts back into Lizard mode and decides that on top of one of Krows horns is a great place to chill. If Ayngel notices the lizard she probably just thinks it's some sort of pet. I mean at this point Krow has brought Draxy out of the maze so she doesn't question where the lizard came from. She just sits by the campfire, writing away in a book. Writing her story, just in case she doesn't get the privilege of telling it.
---
Remember Krow? The one with one arm I mean. The one that was supposed to be dead? After a week or so of crashing at Red's place in the maze, It stirs, ever so slightly. It's going to wake up soon.
---
Owen is planning on killing Krow, for what he thinks will be the final time tomorrow. He has a lot less time that he thinks he does.
---
A whole lot less time.
They'll need to get out of the clearing soon; a fact made all the more evident by Spidey's scream when she finds Squindey's tree house on fire the next morning.