Chapter Text
There was nothing special about Orvyl.
Now, one could easily think this was just him thinking negatively about himself. But the fact was, it was true. He was just a regular Addison: he sold things, advertised things he sold, and bought things to later sell. Day in, day out, every day that wasn’t a day off or taken off to deal with some crisis (such as Waxfird getting stuck in the ceiling again) was spent in the bookstore trying to get the merchandise off the shelves and into someone’s shopping bag.
To non-Addisons, this may sound like a dreadfully boring life. But Orvyl was an Addison, and a life spent fulfilling his purpose was the best thing he could’ve ever asked for.
Not that anyone got to ask, but if he could, he would definitely want exactly what he had right then.
Oryvl found great satisfaction in his life. He wasn’t proud and obnoxious about it like some of the other Ads were; saying they did their life’s mission better than anyone else. What was the point in that? All Darkners had a reason to exist, and they all got it done. Whether or not anyone did it ‘better’ was pointless, at least if you asked him.
Perhaps that was what led Orvyl to attend the Spawning that day. Guiding new Addisons to their housing or, if they had promise, sending them to Ads he knew wanted to be Teachers. It felt good, he thought as he pointed a jittery newbie one way and a confident newbie towards Lxyien’s store, to help them on their way to being who they were meant to be. As the waves of orbs-larger this season than others in recent years-floated down, the same process was happening all across the Spawning Fields. Virovirokuns and Swatchlings and Poppups and Tasques and every other kind of Darkner guided the new members of their population once they were checked for defects.
Thankfully, there were few defective Addisons this time around. It was always a shame to know how much they would struggle, but Orvyl knew that the House would take care of them just as well as it took care of normal Ads. What it lacked in attention-giving and elbow room it made up for with a roof over your head and food on the table until you could fulfill your purpose on your own.
And if you hadn’t figured it out by the time you were an adult, well, good luck?...Oryvl shook his head to end that line of thought. No point in dwelling on bad outcomes. Besides, he was sending plenty of newbies to Teachers, and as Students they would be nearly guaranteed to find their path, so there was no need for him to worry.
Nope, no worrying here! Just guiding and enjoying the happy occasion of a new wave of life coming into being-
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
Ok, now he was worrying.
Oryvl whipped his head towards the scream-wait, make that screams plural-and saw a Werewire getting tased and chained up by security. He had no idea what happened or why, and he never would, but looking from the criminal to the mob of terrified Ambyu-lances showed him the horrifying result.
An orb had been damaged.
Oh, Lightners no.
This...this couldn’t be happening. Orvyl couldn’t even remember the last time an orb was hurt, even if he remembered the aftermath. The act was so forbidden that even the worst of the worst avoided causing harm to the little ones. If shock and grief weren’t all he was feeling, there might’ve been just a bit of joy that the fiend responsible would be getting punished.
He wondered if it would be public, and visualized the great crowd it would draw.
The gruesome image was preferred to the one he was facing in reality. Ambyu-lances could do nothing as the orb flickered and shook. The massive crack down the middle made at least one onlooker vomit as others grimly left the scene. There were still more orbs to tend to, and with the offender already dragged away, there was nothing to do but make sure the other little lights made it in one piece.
Orvyl didn’t know why he couldn’t look away. Was it shock? horror? destiny? It didn’t really matter, because the outcome was the same:
He saw the dead orb come back to life.
It sparked. It shook. It glitched. It didn’t look like it would last more than a microsecond. And yet…there it was, forming the Addison it was meant to be. Silently, as the medics too stared with hope, Orvyl gave thanks to whatever force gave the orbs life, and who had saved this young one as he solidified out of purple light.
That thanks ended when the Addsion broke in two.
A sickening crack rang out as the forming head split down the middle, soon spreading to the rest of the body. It was death. Any Darkner would know that was death. And yet the body kept moving. In fact, the separating halves were moving independently of each other. Another pair of arms and legs forcing themselves into existence, torsos and necks and heads fighting to take the shapes of living beings-
POP!
And then there were two.
The only word Orvyl could think of to describe the things mistakes abominations beings was small. They were several heads smaller than even the shortest Addison, with their limbs and other such things in proportion with their smallness as far as he could tell. Another word could be identical-but-also-not, or whatever the actual word for that would be; they both looked around-though whether they understood anything they saw was unclear-with the same mannerisms and movements. Yet, Orvyl could see how one seemed wary and defensive and the other curious but still fearful.
He wondered if they were scared of all the Darkners staring at them without saying anything. Wait, that’s what he was doing. He should really say something.
“Uh, hello?” Their heads whipped around to face him at ‘uh’. He forced himself to walk closer, “Are-are you-uh, you two-are you ok?”
Why was he asking that? They were a guy that got split in half . Of course they’re not ok! But at least the two-small Addisons? Newbies? Small newbies? Uhg, he’d really have to expand his vocab for this situation-were alive somehow, and oh boy now they were getting closer to him.
At least they didn’t seem scared anymore. They moved over to him with steady feet-good, their mobility wasn’t defective-and curious looks. They stopped right in front of him, tilting their heads like they were trying to understand what they were looking at.
“Um, do you, can you understand me?” He really hoped they could-oh! One was opening his mouth! They must understand-
“Wuh?”
…Ok…well…that was…that was not a good sign.
As the mini-newbies (note to self: workshop name latter) made meaningless noises at him and each other, Orvyl saw a pair of Ambyu-lances coming over with their equipment. Oh thank the Lighteners, he could leave these two with the professionals who could actually help them.
Well, that’s what he tried to do. But the moment he stepped back the mini-newbies squeaked and rushed to close the distance.
This went on for a few moments, and in different circumstances Orvyl might have thought it was funny; like a newbie Tasque following its elder. But the increasingly impatient looks from the Ambyu-lances sucked any humor away. But it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t get rid of them! He tried telling them to stop, pointing them toward the doctors, but they just followed as he walked around while making more weird noises.
Just as he was starting to get frustrated, one laughed. Not more babbling, but actual laughter with a smile and everything. The other joined in when the first rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the elder’s waist.
Everything about that day was weird and confusing, but Orvyl could not stay upset when he realized that was a hug.
Unfortunately the doctors were still very much upset. As evidenced by them grabbing the arm of the one not hugging him.
The noise that followed was undeniably a scream. An intelligible, warbled scream, but absolutely a scream. The grabbed mini-newbie screamed and wailed and weakly tried to pull away as tears poured down his tiny face. The hugger whipped around and gave what Orvyl could tell was his best attempt at a roar before launching every ounce of his four-ish foot body at the doctor’s face.
For a moment, Orvyl just stood there staring at the commotion. A part of him wanted to walk away now that he could. Let the Ambyu-lances deal with them. It wasn’t his responsibility; all he did was talk to them. He shouldn’t care what happened.
A quickly growing part of him only cared that the little ones were upset and that was not good.
“Hey, hey, it’s ok. It’s ok,” he said as he picked the fighter up and held him close, partially to comfort and partially to end the assault on the doctor, “It’s ok. He’s not hurt. C’mere, you,” not even noticing he had roughly slapped the doctor’s hand to free the crier as he scooped him up as well, “See, he’s ok. You’re both ok. Shhhh.”
As he cooed sweet nothings at them, Orvyl devoted some of his brainpower to wondering where the fuck that part of him came from. Since when did he coo?!
Thankfully, the doctors took long enough to recover that the two had calmed down by the time they walked over. The one that got assaulted wasn’t injured-the fists, while furious, were very small after all-but he did not look happy, so Orvyl didn’t protest as he scanned the little ones, only focused on making sure they didn’t freak out again.
By the time the scan was done, the mini-newbies were smiling again. The crier snuggled deeper into his shirt while the fighter was fiddling with Orvyls blue feathers. The book salesman was softly petting his fluffy white down when he finally noticed the doctor’s face.
…That was not a good face.
The Ambyu-lance was telling his partner to get some other equipment and Orvyl didn’t know what any of that would be for but he knew what that face ment. It was the face used for the newbies so defective that they had no purpose. That they were… useless .
Of course they wouldn’t label them as such without checking every possibility, until they ruled that there was no possible place for them in the world. It was entirely possible that the little ones would be totally fine…
…But not being found useless once suspected almost never happened. It did happen sometimes, but usually once the face is used, they’re beyond help.
They. Are. Beyond. Help. That’s what everyone knew. What everyone agreed on. They agreed so much that even questioning it-even talking about it-was forbidden. Orvyl needed to walk away, let them be led to the trucks that will take them to…whatever it was that happened to the useless. He should join those looking away from the mini-newbies, those who recognize the signs. He’d managed to do it for his whole life; not looking at the trucks or those that enter them.
Why was the idea so hard to stomach now?
…
“You get what you need. I’ll make sure they don’t go anywhere,” the Addison said, a lifetime of customer service being used to act as uninvested as possible. The doctors took the opportunity to get away from the little freaks, running to get what they needed to get the whole situation over with.
When they came back to find both the Addison and the anomalies had vanished, they knew that day would definitely go on their permanent records.
“Ok, just a bit further, c’mon.”
Don’t walk too fast, don’t talk too much. Act like you’re doing what you should and people will assume you are. Every ounce of his Addison programming was being put to work; how to smile, how to read faces, how to get what he wanted. He’d just never used it to avoid attention before.
Every time someone glanced over Orvyl was sure that was it. They’d be stopped and he’d have to scoop up the mini-newbies and run like his life depended on it. Which it probably would-maybe, well, maybe not. It’s not like anyone had been crazy enough to do something like that before. But then again, based on how everyone he passed-especially the Addisons-made an effort to look away, maybe someone had.
A part of Orvyl wondered what everyone was thinking. The bigger part knew they were thinking what he would’ve been thinking in that situation;
“Don’t think about it.”
Thank the Lightners the pressure of social taboo lasted long enough to get to his car. Still keeping his face calm he guided/pushed the little ones into the backseat and buckled them in.
“Ok, now just keep your heads down-oh, here,” he grabbed a blanket left over from when the heater broke during the last cold snap and draped it over them, “I really don’t want anyone stopping us until we get home, so I need you to stay hidden until…”
He hadn’t even finished speaking before they fell asleep. Only their tiny faces peeking out from the blanket cocoon as they hugged each other.
A deep part of the Addison-the same one that made him coo at them-thinks that’s the most adorable thing he’s ever seen.
The ride back was thankfully uneventful. Fears of chases and angry royal guards had mostly faded from Orvyls mind as he carried the sleeping mini-newbies up the stairs to his bedroom. Obviously they’d need their own bed, but that would do until he could order one. He had a room he just used to store random junk; he could clean that out and put the bed in there. Or would they need two beds? They seemed fine with it now but if they ever got bigger-
Wait a minute…
…
…
Oh fuck he was planning to keep them forever wasn’t he?
His coo-brain immediately cheered yes before any other part could speak up. Ok, he conceded that it was already decided back at the Spawning Fields. But that also meant he’d have to order way more than a bed or even two; they’d need food and clothes and whatever else Students needed. Expect he couldn’t just treat them like students; they always moved about eventually, and would they ever move out? What if they really were too defective to work? Of course he’d let them stay but-ok he was getting ahead of himself just order the bed tonight and the clothes and the food oh Lightners he didn’t even know what they ate.
Grabbing his phone to call his co-worker, Orvyl knew he wasn’t gonna be able to do this alone.