Castle of Demons

The Cats

"Oh. Hello, doctor," The prince said. "I wasn't expecting you to expect me."

"I read minds, almost as good as your brother does. Anywho, I had an idea. What if we breeded and collected the humans in one of the lands? Feather would work! If we can keep them away from the toxic trees." She scratched at her right leg, which was completely charcoal black and flaked off like skin on an onion.

"What happened?" questioned Flapjack.

"It was an accident. I mixed the wrong things together for my cure and well... you get the idea." She rolled over to her office and pulled back the curtain, revealing a quite large space, the walls covered in small notebook pages that were completely covered in words and formulas. "Following up on the earlier topic of your brother, how is he doing?"

"He's... as good as edgelords can get without being completely - what's the word - happy..." Flapjack answered. "He and I caught some new test subjects for you. Meet Zain, Aoife, Atlas, and Earle."

"Good work, I didn't want to ruin Bløød's life. I'm glad you found new test subjects. I'm sure Ace and Eca would love to hear that they're not going to have to be the king's backup." She rolled to a button in the right hand corner in the front and pressed it, requesting two people to come down to her office. 

Around 15-20 minutes later of sitting in complete silence, two boys about Seth's age walked in. They were twins they claimed- only, they were almost exact opposites in looks and personality.
Eca had black and green hair and light brown skin. His face brightened and his emerald green eyes glimmered as he looked at the humans. 

"Whiteskins!" He looked at Ace who was surprised at Eca's excitement. "We don't have to cover for Uncle Bløød anymore," He breathed and looked at each of the humans, who didn't look excited to be there at all.

"Yes, I do love humans!" Exclaimed Ace, his pale cheeks turning pink as he brushed his blonde and purple hair behind his ear. "They're extremely sweet and quite extraordinary." he skipped over to Zain. "I've never seen a species such as yours! What're you?"

"He's a hybrid of a buck and human," Explained Flapjack. "He did it to himself, quite sad- the fact one has enough time to do that."

Eca pushed back his cloak and put his hand on his hip, revealing a gun. "Is that so?" His long fox ear twitched irritably. 

Flapjack looked at the gun and then at Ace, who smiled innocently. "What I meant was, hybrids who mutate their own DNA are wastes of time..." He sighed hopelessly. "I mean well, truly."

Eca gave a soft staccato sigh and looked away, his hand dropping from his hip. Ace hugged his brother tightly. "So," Ace started. "What happened to your legs, Mistress KC?"

"Science experiment," She huffed. "There's not exactly a cure for it, either."

Flapjack slipped through the door silently, allowing for the others to chat freely. He skipped to the Lawrence's new room with his fingers crossed that his brother didn't mortify him yet. Though, in his visions, Bløød sure does like to mess with his pet. Especially when he's not around. He predicted it would drive him to suicide. Poor human.

He opened the door and Red was there, chatting in whispers with the king. They stopped once they spotted him.

"Hello, Flapjack."

"H..i. What?" Flapjack looked between the two of them. When they didn't reply, he asked again, "What is it?"

"It's... Tovuu," Hesitated Red. She glanced at him briefly before looking back to the king. "And Luci. But first, I need to set the scene." She then told him about the spot that Flapjacks daughter went every morning- the replacement center in Redcotton. She told him that when Tovuu first met Luci, it was in that spot.

"They met there every day for months. Well, today marks the one month anniversary of their meetings."

"Okay?"

"Tovuu did something stupid. He changed the way they did something and he killed her."

"No, she changed something- I have to go. Lawrence, come," Flapjack said quickly, Lawrence scrambling to his friends side and putting on his mask as they teleported to Redcotton.

"You killed her, didn't you?" Flapjack demanded immediately as he saw the god.
"Who told you that?" Tovuu asked, shifting nervously at his feet.

"Red told me. The walls are watching and listening intently; people will rat out their children for bows." Flapjack looked at him with his best- but still not very effective- poker face. "Why?" 

 "She was going to break time itself, I had no choice." 

 "No choice my ass. She was your wife!" He narrowed his eyes. Tovuu growled and sat down on the blood red dirt, his cape folding up underneath him as it collected some of it, standing out noticeably. 

"Look, I can send time back. I didn't want her ruining anything! She was supposed to stick to what she did last time, but"

 "She's unpredictable, Tovuu? That's it?" He said forcefully, clearly upset. Lawrence put his hand on Flapjack's shoulder but he brushed it off irritably. "My daughter is literally everything anyone could want, and you killed her because she's powerful."

 "Not because she's powerful-"

 "You once told me that you wanted an unpredictable woman. One who wasn't ordinary and- and- and plain. You get her, but she's not enough." Tovuu's eyes flashed neon blue and Flapjack and Lawrence were back in the room with the other humans. 

Flapjack clenched his fist and stormed out with Bløød, locking the door behind him. "Don't let him get to you Flapjack, you're going to ruin the castle." Bløød sipped on some coffee and sat on a loveseat outside of the room. "Have you seen Vanity lately? I have to-" He paused, sipped on his coffee, hesitated, then continued, "Catch up with him on castle matters." 

 "No, I haven't- Oh my god I'm going to kill Tovuu. Bløød, I need you to fast forward time." A look of discomfort covered his face briefly, then was replaced by his usual blank face. 

"I- Sure. How far?"

 "Three days."

 Bløød twitched nervously and looked around. His eyes turned the same neon blue that Tovuu's did and they were back in the room. 

The king pushed Flapjack out of the way and ran out, slamming the door behind him. "Is he okay?" Lawrence asked softly.

 "When it comes to his weaknesses, we don't question it if you want to live to see tomorrow."