"The Case Of The Fire Inside."

Yeah eveythings alright 4

Techno's heard many stories of sailors going insane at sea and lighthouse keepers going mad in isolation. He always chuckled at them, marvelling at the idea of a beautiful place all for him, having all that time for himself. How could anyone go insane in a place like that? Only fools would take a job out in lighthouses if they weren't up for the task.

He thinks his family are fools. Complete and utter fools who are already going completely insane.

They're playing with a wild seal like it's some sort of pet and not a wild animal. Seals may look plenty cute, but they had sharp teeth and strong jaws, they were not innocent little things to fool around with. Not that anyone else seemed to believe him on this.

He had tried to explain that to his father and brother when they came inside with stories of the seal that came up to them earlier approaching once again. Wilbur had gone into the water with it, had touched it. And Phil, who Techno thought was the logical one in this family, had calmly sat reading to it. Like it was some kind of kid Phil was babysitting. Even worse was the fact that they continued to go out and see it. As if one time wasn't dangerous enough.

"It's taking advantage of you," Techno tells them one morning from where he nursed a cup of coffee. It had been his turn to get up at the crack of dawn to do their regular reports. Wilbur was unusually cheerful that morning, talking about his plan to stay outside and try to spend the day with Theseus again. Techno was sticking to that name, had even convinced Phil and Wilbur to use it as well. "It's realized your easy prey and is now stalking you. One of these days it's going to pull you under and laugh while you drown."

"You're chipper this morning," Phil said from the stove, where he was frying up some bacon. "Theseus wouldn't do that, he's a good seal."

"By god it's got you too," Techno deadpanned, Phil letting out a cheerful laugh. Phil was always cheerful these days. Techno didn't understand, he had been inconsolable after the funeral for days until this stupid job came up.

"He's been coming out and sitting with me while I read for almost a week now," Phil said, turning to face both of them. "Not once has he been hostile. A little shit maybe, but never hostile."

"It's a wild animal!" Techno threw up his hands, a headache forming behind his eyes. "Am I the only one with any logical sense here? You're both treating it like it's some wayward soul you've taken in. It's a seal. It's going to get uninterested the second it realizes you're not going to feed it some tuna."

"Ooh," Wilbur perked up, turning to stare at their dad with a glint in his eyes. "Should we bring him some tuna?"

"Oh my god," Techno put his head in his hand, trying not to scream at how Phil and Wilbur giggled at his reaction. Any other time and it would have been nice to see them getting along. Despite what his family may think, he does actually care about their well-being and relationship with each other. It was nice that after years of silence they were here joking without any hidden hatred. He just wished they used this frail alliance for things other than harassing him.

"I think Techno's jealous," Wilbur declared, leaning over and slinging an arm over his shoulder. Techno sat up so fast that Wilbur almost tumbled over his chair.

"I am not jealous you-"

"Because the seal he named is paying more attention to us than him," Wilbur continued without pause, a look of false sympathy on his face, a hand pressed against his chest.

"I think your right mate," Phil tsked, shaking his head to try and hide his smile. "It's okay Techno, not everything you name will love you. Theseus simply likes Wilbur and I more, and that's no reason to lash out like this."