It took a while for the situation to settle down after the whole Sleep debacle. However, soon enough, the group found themselves in the kitchen was a symphony of clinking spoons and muffled crunching.
Every seat at the table was taken, leaving barely enough elbow room for cereal warfare to stay civil. Boxes were passed, bowls refilled, and spoons dipped with varying levels of enthusiasm. The air slled faintly of sugar, oat milk, and vague sleep deprivation.
Rachel, having taken one look at the overcrowded table, had claid what she called her ’throne’ on the kitchen counter. Legs swinging and bowl in hand, she crunched loudly on a rainbow-colored cereal that was probably 80% marshmallow and 20% sugar.
"Sis... I think we need to find a new place." Leo muttered, shifting to avoid bumping shoulders with Lily for the fifth ti.
"You think? A 4 bedroom house and there are 8 people here...It was not built for that."
Luna shot back in annoyance as she too felt an elbow nudge into her side. She didn’t even bother checking who it was anymore. It happened every two minutes.
"We could rotate," Adam said with a tired sigh, carefully bringing his spoon to his mouth like soone navigating a minefield. "Eat in shifts. Like a functioning household."
"Yeah," Crystal replied, sitting stiffly with her knees jamd under the table, "and maybe next we can schedule bathroom ti and form a committee for sock disputes."
Aria sat beside her, sohow managing to look perfectly composed despite the chaos. "I would actually support that. The sock thing, I an."
Leo leaned back slightly but stopped short when his elbow nearly knocked over Penny’s bowl. "Sis, seriously. We need to move. This place isn’t made for more than four people. And we have eight."
"You think I don’t know that?" Luna muttered, snatching the milk carton from Lily before it got passed down the wrong direction again. "I don’t like the idea of eating in shifts but if we don’t go sowhere else, we might need to do that.."
Penny, sitting awkwardly between Crystal and Luna, clutched her cereal bowl like it was a flotation device. She still hadn’t looked at Lily since waking up. Her spoon moved slowly, and her blanket remained tightly wrapped around her like so sort of defensive enchantnt.
"I had a dream last night," Penny said after a mont. "It started soft and then everything got really dark. When I woke up, I realized it wasn’t a dream. It was boobs."
Rachel choked on her cereal from across the room and laughed so hard she nearly dropped the bowl off the counter.
"Oh my god. You are never going to let that go, huh?"
"Would you?" Penny asked, voice dry.
Lily buried her face in her hands again. "I already said sorry. Twice."
"You’re lucky I’m still alive," Penny mumbled, taking a cautious bite of cereal as if expecting another attack.
"I gave you the good cereal," Lily said from behind her hands, voice muffled. "That’s gotta count for sothing."
"It does," Rachel said, still chuckling. "Counts as a bribe. And an apology. And maybe a peace offering to the Cereal Gods."
"I’m just saying," Penny muttered. "Boobs are dangerous."
Crystal nodded solemnly. "I’ve been saying this for years."
"Okay," Adam said, putting down his spoon. "Can we please change the subject before soone starts a boob-related safety seminar? Might I remind you all that there are n here too.."
Luna sighed and leaned back as much as her cramped seat allowed. "Fine. Let’s talk about the ga."
"Right," Leo said, brightening a little.
"I skimd the patch notes last night, but honestly? They made zero sense."
"What do you an?" Crystal asked, eyeing him over the rim of her bowl.
"I an," Leo continued, setting his spoon down, "they were just a ss of vague phrases. Stuff like ’mob behavior improvents,’ ’adjusted drop dynamics,’ and ’environntal event balancing.’ I read them twice and still couldn’t tell if it was a buff or a nerf."
"So... business as usual," Rachel called from the counter, poking at a pink marshmallow.
"Exactly," Leo said, gesturing with both hands. "We won’t know what any of it actually ans until we log in and try stuff
Penny looked down at her bowl with a forlorn look on her face. The cereal was soggy now, and her spoon just rested in the bowl like it had given up too.
Adam blinked suddenly, then sat up straighter. "Oh. That’s right."
Everyone turned to look at him.
"I completely forgot why I even went to wake you up this morning," he said, pointing at Penny. "Your headset ca in. It got delivered early."
Penny froze. "Wait. What?"
"Yeah," Adam said, pushing his chair back with a bit of renewed energy. "Big box, your na on it, sitting right by the front door."
Penny’s eyes lit up like soone had flipped a switch in her soul. She shoved the cereal bowl onto the table and jumped to her feet, the blanket falling from her shoulders like she was shedding a second skin.
"You’re serious?" she asked, eyes wide.
"As a man trying to eat cereal in a war zone," Adam replied.
Rachel whooped from the counter. "Look at that! The resurrection of Penny. Powered by technology."
Lily tried not to smile. "Told you the good cereal would work."
Penny was already halfway out of the room. "If soone opened it without I will commit acts."
"No one touched it!" Luna called after her. "It’s literally still taped shut!"
Aria gave a small smile as she watched Penny disappear down the hall. "Well. That’s one way to recover from a boob-based trauma."
Leo leaned back again, grinning. "Once she sets it up, we can all log in together. Let her get used to the controls before we start running missions."
It was finally ti for the Chaos Pantheon to finally set out and complete so missions.
"Once we clean up the kitchen, let’s go full force."
"Aye Aye Captain" they shouted sowhat teasingly in almost perfect unison. It was about ti the Chaos Pantheon caused a little chaos
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