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Dark and Wilford got a written invitation to dinner at the Septic house. Which was... odd, considering Anti hadn’t told them about anything of the sort.
So when Dark showed it to Anti, a small smile on his face, Anti shook his head, took the fancy-looking invitation and immediate tried to crumple it up.
“Nope! No no no, no way, I know those bastards too bloody well, they’re plannin’ something. I can feel it in my code.”
Wilford plucked the invitation out of Antis hand before he could do too much damage, and giggled, studying it.
“This is wonderful penmanship, I wonder who wrote it?”
Anti hasn’t been with Dark and Wilford for too long. And although he had turned into a huge pain in the ass for the Septics, simply because he was cooped up and bored, now that he was otherwise occupied and could come and go as he pleased, his relationship with everyone improved tenfold.
And it seemed that they wanted to interrogate the partners of their... sibling? Kin? Whatever they were to each other, they were protective. Especially since there were less Septics than there were Ipliers, there was more of a sort of sticking together sort of feeling.
And it wasn’t like they weren’t aware of each other. They’d even met, had meetings together, but said meetings had been on different terms.
Anti buried his face in his hands with embarrassment.
“It’s Jamie’s. Y’know, since he’s mute an’ all, so he’s gotta be fancy with other forms of communicatin’.”
It was genuinely sweet and endearing the way that Anti spoke of the others. Dark and Wilford weren’t so sure he’d be so caring and make so many exceptions for other people with communication problems. But between Jameson, who didn’t speak at all, and Robbie, who understood vaguely, but slowly, and made as much sense as a lawnmower trying to speak English, Anti just... cared. A lot, it seemed.
Dark crosses his arms and had a warm smile on his face.
“We’re going.”
-
Anti could never just enter a building like a normal person. He wasn’t normal, or a person, but the point still stood that he could have just called out. But no. Anti had to glitch through the door and haunt the intercom. And maybe the glitched our, echo-y, generally disturbing “It’s Me” that rang through the building would have been scary if it weren’t for the fact that it was so extra. In fact, the only person who seemed to be bothered by it was Marvin.
Of course, Dark and Wilford wouldn’t have known it was Marvin, but when Anti formed again, he heard a yelp and some crashing from the other room and doubled over with laughter.
“Anti! Dooon’t!”
Marvin stumbled into the living room, mask slightly askew, looking huffy until he saw the figures standing behind Anti, almost like bouncers or guards or something of the sort.
Marvin crossed his arms as he waited for Anti to stop his cackling, and there was another voice - or maybe it was two seperate voices, they could barely tell - calling from upstairs.
“Hey, is that Anti?”
Marvin called back, not taking his eyes off of Anti.
“Yeah, and he’s already suckin’ dicks!”
“How many?”
There was the tap tap tap of Jackie and Chase coming down the stairs and Marvin’s eyes flickered over Wilford and Dark, who didn’t seem to have an issue with the exchange.
“At LEAST two, but I’d estimate seven.”
-
At some point, once Anti had explained his behaviours as the equivalent of sucking dicks to Dark and Wilford, Jameson and Schneeplestein made their way into the living area and shook hands with the Ipliers in greeting. It seemed they had taken something of a proxy parental role, despite Jameson being a reasonably new ego. Schneep translated for everything Jameson had to say, and Wilford noticed briefly that when Jameson signed to Anti, he followed the conversation just fine.
Schneep spoke up in that horrid German accent of his, and Dark couldn’t tell if he always sounded slightly condescending or if he just spoke to Anti that way whenever.
“So, are you going to actually introduce everyone?”
Anti rolled his eyes and started pointing to everyone in the room.
“Marv, Jackie, Jamie, Schneep, Chase and...”
Anti seemed to pause, genuinely troubled for a moment, before there was a strange thumping on the ground and Anti bolted to the doorway, intercepting the last person.
“- And Robbie! There’s my dude! How ye been, huh?!”
Anti looked so excited to see Robbie, and despite them being exactly the same height and stature, Anti picked him up and spun him around, cackling as Robbie made generally pleased sounds, or at least, he was pleased as far as Wilford and Dark could tell.
-
Anti seemed to preside over Robbie in general, as was evident when they finally sat down for dinner, Marvin struggling to make the table big enough until Wilford offered to help. Marvin looked up at Wilford with big, impressed eyes as he transformed the table with relative ease.
Marvin, Wilford found, was distinguishable in the sea of Irish accents by his high pitched, almost whiny tone. He wasn’t annoying or anything like that, it was almost more like he was mentally a little younger than the rest, in the same way that Schneep seemed just a tad older, or more mature.
And the fact that Wilford could tell him apart so quickly, combined with his strange powers and witty banter, Marvin got attached to Wilford pretty quickly.
Chase, Dark found, was distinguishable in that he was far more quiet and reserved. Despite his looks and the strange career path Anti told Dark he had taken, he seemed... just a little flatter than the rest of the Septics. Jameson was, of course, naturally very quiet, and still mature, but had the same pep and bounce that the majority of them had. All except for Chase.
For Dark, Chase was the respite of shade from the overwhelming brightness and sunlight that was the other Septics. And Dark appreciated that immensely.
Dark also appreciated the way Jameson seemed to have so much sway over the group without a literal voice. Although they certainly seemed more like a typical family than the Ipliers, Dark thought Jameson must have had an awful lot of power to keep control of things without drowning them out with his own voice. Although Dark would never admit it, perhaps there was something to be taken from that, the influence of silence.
-
Dark assisted Schneeplestein with carving the roast, and they talked very casually about human anatomy. Schneep was silently impressed and almost a little startled by Darks knowledge, since Dark wasn’t a doctor or anything of the sort.
They sat down and Anti deliberately sat at the end, instead of between Dark and Wilford like people had expected, so he could help Robbie with his food. Robbie seemed to struggle with some motor functions and Anti helped cut up his meat and roasted vegetables into bite sized pieces. Anti also bent Robbie’s spoon so he didn’t have to move his wrist as much and he could almost eat at the pace of the others.
Watching it all play out was... mesmerising in a strange way, because Anti had never shown this kind of care with anyone before. As far as Dark and Wilford were concerned, Anti was a total wild card, a being who was careless and malicious and needed to be reeled in.
But it seemed that this, the closest thing Anti could consider to being his home, he was a settled being here. Here, he was patient and careful and, yeah, he could be off the rails when it fancied him. But he was okay-er here.
Jameson started signing and Schneep swallowed the bite of potato he’d taken to start translating.
“So, what is it that Anti is helping you with exactly?”
Dark finished his own mouth full of food, before waving his fork a little, clearing the cobwebs from his brain.
“Oh, nothing too extraordinary. Blackmail, hired hits, and the whole taking over Marks channel business.”
Schneeplestein seemed to raise an eyebrow at that and spoke on his own behalf.
“A professional murderer? Well well, quite the step up from casual murder for fun, is that right Anti?”
Anti shot Schneep a strange look that Wilford couldn’t entirely read.
Jameson signed again.
“We trust that you are keeping him safe.”
Wilford beamed.
“Absolutely! Fit as a fiddle, wouldn’t let anything happen to him!”
Anti looked to be distracting himself rather deliberately with helping Robbie even though Robbie didn’t explicitly look like he needed help. Jackie and Marvin had identical smirks on both of their faces.
“And Anti...”
Schneep spoke again. Anti looked at him, almost worriedly.
“As your doctor, I have to ask. Are you being safe?”
Anti stood up from the table, glitching slightly and knocking his chair back.
“Do we HAVE to talk about this? At the fuckin’ dinner table?!”
Dark supposed Anti respected the sanctity of the dinner table when it was convenient for him - when he didn’t want to be embarrassed. In an attempt to salvage the situation, Dark spoke for him.
“I can assure you, Doctor. Anti is safe in every way while he’s in our care.”
Anti shot Dark a look this time.
“I’m not yer fuckin’ kid, Dark.”
At that moment, it seemed that Robbie, Robbie who seemed so sweet and innocent, perked up and made sounds that were quite close to words.
“Da...ddy...”
At that, Wilford burst out with laughter. Because Jesus Christ, of the goddamn zombie was smart and sentient enough to recognise the dynamic and make a Daddy joke... well, it showed what Anti was into pretty clearly.
Anti just looked shocked, half impressed and half disappointed at Robbie for calling him out like this, and put a hand over Robbie’s mouth, playfully. Because Anti couldn’t possibly be mad at Robbie. And it showed. Robbie licked his hand, and it completely distressed the situation. Everyone at the table was laughing now, even Dark and Chase has to chuckle at Antis expense, and Schneep and Jameson seemed satisfied enough with the whole set up.
“God damn it, Robbie! Ye little bastard, ye don’t get te just say shit like that!”
Anti carried on, smiling in spite of himself, picking up Robbie from his chair and slowly wrestling him to the ground. Robbie made an attempt to bite at Antis arm, to which Anti replied in the same way that an adult getting shot by a child with a fake gun would.
Anti died, dramatically, right there on the dining room floor, from a zombie bite. Robbie looked incredibly pleased with himself.