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Dark didn’t usually care about the well-being of the other Egos too much so long as they were productive and not dead.
Wilford did care, though. Because this was his family. And Anti tagged along on Wilfords adventures, big or small, because Wilford knew how to make watching paint dry interesting. Finding Egos was gonna be a blast.
Wilford noticed something was off when one morning, he walked into the kitchen and found that there was a full jar of peanut butter, untouched, in the cupboard. The seal hadn’t been cracked or anything.
To anyone else this may have seemed totally fine and not concerning even in the slightest, but it indicated one thing in the Ego household.
King of the Squirrels hadn’t come in yet.
Typically King was an outdoorsy type, and you could basically smell it on him. But every morning, before the sun even rose, he’d come into the kitchen through the window, open the jar, take a huge scoop with his hand and take it outside again. The Jim’s has caught it on camera once. It was actually quite sweet, it not a little gross.
So an untouched jar of of the ol’ PB was weird. On a hunch, Wilford set out to find Oliver, the least intimidating of the Googles.
After his coffee.
“Oli! I need something.”
Oliver turned around from talking to the other IRL units with a big smile.
“Hello, Wilford! What can I help you with today?”
“I need to look at Kings search history. Trust me, this is probably important.”
Oliver looked blank for a moment, before smiling at Wilford again.
“I’m sorry, Wilford. But you need admin permission for -“
Wilford held up his hand.
“I know I have admin permission, Oliver. Dark gave it to me ages ago.”
Oliver sighed, as if he had failed something. Clearly Dark didn’t actually want Wilford to have any real control over the IRL units. So they compromised by setting one little failsafe.
“Alright, but I’ll need the verbal password.”
Wilford looked thoughtful for a second.
“...Fischfuck?”
“Access granted.”
Wilford looked a little proud of himself, as he scrolled through Kings history. His suspicions had been more or less confirmed, although he didn’t think King would have gone THAT far. How the hell did he catch a plane!?
Wilford dragged Anti off of the couch where he had been lounging with Dark, said toodles and they poofed out of existence.
Later on that day, around dinner time, Dark was getting rather peeved that the two had still not returned. It had been hours, and he was bored, damn it.
He was sitting at the kitchen table, tapping his fingers and letting his aura rumble when he saw that familiar cloud of pink, along with... sand? And then all at once, three figured poofed just above the table with - yep, yeah, that was definitely sand.
Dark stood back, a little shocked.
Anti spoke first.
“Hey Darky, you won’t fuckin’ GUESS who we found in the desert!”
Wilford looked a tad offended.
“I didn’t guess, I knew where he’d be and we found him thusly!”
Wilford picked up Kings unconscious form from the table and carried him, bridal style to the sink where he managed to feed a very weak King some peanuts and water. King, with what little energy he had, curled up a little in Wilfords arms, and Anti audibly aww’d.
“Why on Earth was King in the middle of the desert?”
Dark crossed his arms, in lieu of knowing how to look confused and in control at the same time.
“He was looking up different species of squirrels and heard rumours of some that could exist in baron landscapes. Turns out he didn’t fare quite as well.”
Wilford slumped down, King still in his arms, and he held him like a small child as he gave the poor capped man sips of water.
Anti walked up to Dark and elbowed him in the side.
“Pretty cute, huh?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Ye didn’t need to say it. I could see it in ye face. Ye like it when he gets all... sweet and responsible.”
Dark blushed, inasmuch as he could blush. He turned a few shades darker. But it was still grey.