Animal Flow

All Behold The Spectacle

Lips and Zoot sit on the couch in the living room as everyone surrounds them, bombarding them with questions. Lips can hardly make out any of the words they're saying. Their voices sound like a nauseating frequency of harsh noise, poking into his ears as they attempt to occur to him. But, of course, it doesn't quite work. The door to his brain is replaced with a filtered screen, the scattered holes only big enough to let Zoot's words inside- everything else bouncing against the screen in a way that irritates him.

Fortunately, he's soon brought to justice as Animal notices how overwhelmed his fatigued friend is. He slams his hands together, clapping loudly as he yells, "QUIET!" 

Lips sighs in relief as the air grows still, finally sparing him some silence.

"Lips tired. Be careful with Lips." Animal purrs calmly. "Lips friend."

Everyone nods empathetically. Teeth, who's leaning on the couch's arm besides Lips, speaks up. And he can't help but to notice the patch over his eye. "I apologize for that, goldilocks." He offers him a sheepish smile, once again reaching to ruffle his hair. 

"Hey, don'tcha touch him dentures! 'Rember what happened to ya last time?" Floyd calls out rather aggressively.

A pang of guilt goes through Lips as he remembers what he did to Teeth this morning. "Iduh'min," he replies, reaching to give Teeth a pat on the back in return.

But... he flinches as he feels nothing beneath his hand.

Teeth isn't there.

And neither is Zoot.

Zoot is trying to split up Teeth and Floyd, who've begun a noisy quarrel in the blink of an eye.

Janice is yelling over the two, trying to shut them up.

"Oh yeah? Well, if it was you, I reckon you'd be DEAD immediately, you flimsible little thing!"

"And? Man, you're the one that was stupid enough to bother the poor thing like that!"  

"Guys!!! Like, we should totally be quiet for Lips!"

"No, hey, hey, don't get physical please-"

"GUYS! QUIEET!" 

This time, Animal doesn't have the control he had initially. And it's making Lips shudder with overstimulation. The pebbles of noise flung at his ears only sting harder like a wound that opens further with each blow. He covers his ears, curling up onto the cushion as he squeezes his eyes even further shut. He hopes painfully that his body language is enough to get them quiet. But, of course, everyone is far too busy fighting. Far too busy to the point of not even noticing that Lips has moved at all.