By The Lantern-Light (A CherriSnake AU)

II - You're Not Thinking Creatively

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The room I had rented out was large enough for the three of us; Edward, Edgar, and myself could work comfortably in the time that we had to stay here. In my high hopes, I had already paid for three more days...I wouldn't make that mistake again, believe me.

When I opened the door, I was greeted with a floor sparsely covered in toys, bolts, and other broken whos-its and whats-its.

The twins, who had their backs to the door previously, glanced up at me from the middle of the room. They simultaneously beamed and scrambled up to greet me.

"Hi, Calixte!" Edward shouted, his arms wrapping around my legs. "Did you do it? Are we rich and famous now?"

With a sigh, I peeled the boy off of me. Edgar was standing behind his brother looking up at me with excited eyes. The elder twin was practically vibrating, impatient for my answer.

"I..." I started, but the words wouldn't come out. Couldn't come out.

No; in fact, I am a failure.

They had been so wonderfully behaved during the trip. The prospect of their adoptive father becoming a renowned inventor had meant everything to them, and I could see it in their faces. They had even begged to come to the interview to watch my success...success that had not come to fruition.

I wanted something for them to be proud of.

"...Not yet. We still have more to do." That should suffice for now.

Both boys, with shining smiles, followed me around the small room as I set my jockey hat on the lone desk and pulled off my overcoat.

"...and then, Edgar fixed the clock. The hands were sticking." Edward was chatty as ever as he relayed the events of their day. "At first we made it worse, but then he tried taking it all apart."

"There was gunk up in some of the gears," Edgar added, a bit quieter but still enthusiastic. "I found your cleaning solution, by the way. Also, you're out of cleaning solution."

I furrowed my brow in slight annoyance.

"Because I used it all."

"Yes, Edgar, I guessed that."

I stepped around the mess to get to my bed, which had also been filled with tiny springs and cogs. This time I was to blame; I had been nervously tinkering that morning to the point of overwinding a wind-up toy.

"A man came by the room today, too. He told us to tell you to write to him...but we didn't get his name."

"What have I told you about opening the door for strangers?"

"I thought it was you!" Edward yelled beside me. I winced from the loud noise.

"Volume, Edward! People are trying to sleep. And I told you I would be back late in the day, there's no reason for you to open the door before I got back, except for the inn staff."

Edgar stayed silent while I scolded his brother, but Edward was defiant. "Well, what if you had forgotten your key?"

"I would not be so careless."

"Uh, Calixte sir?" Edgar finally chimed in. "Did you show the investor my ray-gun sketch? And do the noises too? The noises are the important part."

Shit, how do I fix this?

"I would like to get shot with the ray-gun. When you build the ray-gun, I wanna get shot first." Edward looked up with a wishful smile, fantasizing what it would be like to be shot with an arguably deadly weapon. The boys were strange.

"It's my ray-gun, I get shot first!"

Strangest twelve-year-olds I had ever met.

"Well, uh..." I averted my gaze from them and shuffled my papers.

In all honesty, yes. I had shown Mr. Valentino the sketch, and I even threw in a few good pew pews for a laugh, but he didn't look very amused. I had figured it would at least lessen the tension building up inside of me, but it must have made me seem unprofessional instead of the intended relatability.

Pulling the parchment at the bottom of my pile, I took in the crude doodle of an impossible design. No room for bulky propellers, engines, or anything functional. It was meant to be hand-held, and powered by electricity! Modern science simply wouldn't allow the parameters.

As they awaited my answer, I gave them a defeated look. I didn't want to crush their spirits so soon, but I didn't have it in me to lie. While the design was unexecutable, who was I to tell them so? Perhaps they would stumble upon something that I had not. It had happened before, why doubt their skill now? They were the reason I had better cleaning mixtures, since they had learned from their birth parents the perfect chemical for getting rid of grime. Seriously, I begged them to get it patented once they were old enough to do so.

"It's okay if they didn't understand it. Maybe I need to write out all the details about it...and make more drawings." Edgar placed a hand over his mouth, an awkward method of showing he was thinking hard. His brow furrowed before he locked eyes with me. "I need some more paper."

There was something peculiar about the twins, anyone could tell. Their ability to simultaneously annoy the absolute shit out of me, while being the highlight of my life was nothing short of impressive.

Besides their personalities, Edward and Edgar were almost identical, save for the fact that their hair was combed in opposite directions and Edward was missing a tooth (the result of horseplay, unsurprisingly). And as any good parent would do, I dressed them as I dressed myself: sophisticated navy blue waistcoats with my signature golden yellow stripes and black slacks. I even had special hats made for them, but they were constantly lost within our house, so they almost never wore them. I also had to keep in mind to have the lapels of their waistcoats embroidered like mine, which featured the snake of my family's crest in yellow and red thread.

I genuinely smiled for the first time that day. Something strange indeed, that they always managed to turn my day around when I was at my lowest.

I helped the boys retrieve their art supplies (cheap parchment and graphite pencils) from one of my bags, and set them up on the tiny desk beside each other. They babbled to each other and me excitedly about their dreams of weaponry with powers beyond current human capability, as well as how much they wanted to try the cheese platter offered by the tavern downstairs. They had been brought lunch and dinner by the staff, but I made a mental note to check if I had enough money to buy the extra snack. Truth be told, I was curious as well.

They continued to draw, and I would occasionally add in with my own fanciful doodles. Most adults could forget sometimes how thrilling it felt to simply...forget about restraints. To be creative, even if it wouldn't amount to anything. The three of us let our minds run wild that night.

The sun was almost gone, replaced by the colder light of the moon, when the boys had used up their remaining energy and crawled into bed. I had expected to be in my own bed, asleep, nearly an hour prior, but I wasn't unhappy with how the evening ended.

I was going to buy that cheese platter, after all. I hoped I could remember to do so the next day.

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Hello again! I'm glad you stuck around! Something I wanted to mention really quick: the headers are important (although I will make an effort to introduce the character the proper way), so as to avoid an awkward 'POV.'

 Thank you guys for reading, and I'll see you next Friday!

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The Kid I Used To Know by Arrested Youth