More Human Pib, please. -- Escla
[AN: Referencing this thing BTW ]
Havenworlders were on edge, some were seeking out places to hide. Some were seeking out places where something might be hiding. The entire crew of the Jaunty Merchant were operating under a Code Giggle.
Human Pib had escaped.
Humans Orgo and Lun were checking their entire quarters, and every nook and cranny therein. They were doing this for the fiftieth time since Human Pib had "turned up missing". The fact that Humans had a phrase for this kind of thing was disturbing in a multitude of directions.
Human Pib had "turned up missing" before, an event involving a lollipop, a screwdriver, and a scattering of low-nutrition, high-calorie snack bites melded with smears of sticky condiments over a significant portion of the ship[1]. Thus, having Human Pib on the loose again was a terror previously unknown.
Those who could search, were doing so. Those who could not stand such surprises were concealing themselves in definitely Human-free spaces. The rest were searching all the previously secure areas because of course someone like Human Pib could find their way in when numerous other mortals could not.
They eventually found Human Pib in the Captain's Lounge. Not surrounded by sticky mess, but instead the kind of mess caused by a very small child methodically unpacking every storage space they could find. By comparison alone, it was an easier mess to sort out.
There was, a construction out of most of it that could pass as a tinker-toy town made by someone without their usual access to tinker toys. What had apparently stopped the young Human at their play was the Captain's Screensaver.
It had activated to let Captain Xorg know that there was a message awaiting hir attention, and then when no valid password had arrived, played a visually appealing series of swooshing whorls of colour that had frozen Human Pib in their place.
Captain Xorg got on the comms and said, "I have found Human Pib. No appreciable damage to the ship or stores."
Though it wasn't heard in person, there was still the sensation of a collective sigh of relief among the crew.
Human Pib looked up in the manner of all children acknowledging the presence of a relative stranger. Namely, the chief question in their limited mind was, Is this person an authority and am I in trouble now?
"Broken," announced Human Pib. "I didn't do it." In order to give credence to their claim, they retreated from their perch on Xorg's chair and hunkered down by their constructed town. Belatedly realising their play was not with their toys, Human Pib added, "Someone did a naughty."
"A very creative naughty," allowed Xorg. Ze checked hir screen and found it in perfect working order. "Well. Since I fixed this, how about you help me fix that," and gestured at the constructive destruction all over the lounge floor. "Let's start with all the rocks."
"...kay?" Human Pib helped gather the mineral samples into an improvised container. An occupation that kept them busy until the parents arrived.
"Oh my goodness," cooed Human Lun. "Pib, you gave us a worry..."
"I'm helping," said Human Pib.
Human Orgo scooped up the child and wrapped them up in his arms. "I got so scared that you'd left us alone," he said, in a typical display of parental nonsense. It was the sort of illogic that was key to managing small Humans everywhere.
It was silly, but so were Humans, in the end.
[1] It might be noted that, in the event of similar messes, any portion of a vessel is significant. Purely because of the time necessary to remove said mess.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Miiisha]
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