𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒 || ᴘʜᴏᴇʙᴇ ꜱᴘᴇɴɢʟᴇʀ

phase eight - make sure she's okay

gary and nova entered the walmart, walking through the aisles until they found the ice cream section. "yeah," gary sighed. "oh, can i have the chocolate chip one?" she asked her dad, letting him reach for the out-of-reach pint, giving it to her. "thank you!" after he grabbed his, they heard a scream. "oh shit." she mumbled, but they just shrugged and moved on. "jamoca." "ew, jamoca my ass." "what? its a parent flavor."

they walked down another for some marshmallow fluff and other goodies. "blue velvet?" gary asked himself, chuckling, but taking it off the shelf. "ooh, mint." nova said, taking it off the shelf, walking after her father. but then they heard a marshmallow bag rustle. last time nova had checked, marshmallow bags didnt rustle unless an external force made it. slowly, the two simultaneously turned around, looking at why the marshmallow bag would ever make noises when no one else was in the aisle. squatting down, they watched a small marshmallow man crawl out of a small hole it made from a pillow marshmallow bag. it yawned, as if just awoken, and rubbed its eyes. it looked so adorable. it smiled and walked towards nova and gary before face palmed the shelf. it recovered quickly, and as a tempted nova reached her finger out, gary slapped it away. "see, it wants a hug, dad!" nova said. so, gary reached its finger towards the marshmallows back and booped it. it turned around, and gary chuckled, doing it again, but it bit him, making him quickly retract his finger.

"oh, wow, okay, lesson one : don't touch moving marshmallows.." nova nodded. and suddenly, marshmallows erupted from all the marshmallow bags, each and every one of them alive. then, no suprise, a roomba hit gary's feet with a bunch of mini marshmallow men on them, and next thing they knew, like ants and cockroaches, they were everywhere. "oh god." he sighed, grabbing her hand and fast-walking out of there with his daughter right behind him. quickly they walked by barbecue sections, where marshmallow men parkoured along the equipment, some of them in literal blenders, and others literally just burning each other to death, which disturbed the shit out of nova. walking to a corner, they found a creature eating bags and bags of dog food, which nova just guessed it was because she didn't have enough time before her father pushed her away. but of course, he had to make the irrational decision of throwing a freaking ice cream pint that was full, mind you, at the creature with red eyes. great.

so now, nova and gary grooberson were making a run for it through the walmart with a unknown creature that looked like a dinosaur and sheep at the same time (a dinep, nova was thinking), as her father screamed while running. "not making it any better!" she reminded him, shouting. "how could i make it any worse?" he repsonded, and she realized he wasnt wrong, so she started screaming with him. at one point, they both went seperate ways and told each other they would meet each other at home.

nova wasn't good at running, but she ran home that night. as fast as she could.

but dad didn't come home.

/\/\/\

at spinners the next morning, there were 5. in a booth, phoebe and nova sat on one side, trevor and lucky on the other with podcast pulling up a chair to bed the head of the table so no one would be to sqished. "okay, so, what exactly is happening with the map?" the map was rolled onto the table, letting everyone take a look at it. "see the concentric circles around the mountain?" phoebe asked, making nova slowly nodded her head. but of course, trevor went, "no." "do you see the circles?" phoebe deadpanned. "yes." he nodded. "somethings happening inside that old mine." she continued. "yeah, i know that. its pretty obvious." "but it wasn't obvious when she asked you if you saw the concentric circles." nova said, leaning back. "i don't even know what concentric means." "oh my-" nova slapped her hand onto her forehead.