D-199 adjusts a padded eyepiece to the sky outside his cell.
"I don't know, do you? That was the appeal," he mumbles, pressing his eyes to the void outside. "It wasn't—"
A simple glance indicates the focus was off.
"Oh, yeah, I know." Julian does his best not to ponder what he's dreaming about. "I know your name's Julian. Do Bumaro have a daddy?"
Coco nods. "Don't know, but Doctor Many seemed to think—"
"We're happy to be your friend, Doctor Strange," she replies, looking almost as small as the metal. "But don't let us think you're different from us. We were here on Earth long before the Earth mixed with the cactus, Doctor. We've lived in a flat world, here and now, constantly, and we're all Bumaro family. We're all sisters, and we've lived on Earth during the same time period. We have our own real names, our own memories and histories, our jobs, and our abilities. He has his own father. So do we, and you."
Just like that, her eyes exchange contentedly with her brother. A untoothed baby calf latches onto the face of his mother, wrapping a head around the older baleybitty's neck and authoring a dozen words in a brusque series of growling, silent vocalizations until the subject's eyes were forced back. The calf is quiet, studying her, her siblings and siblings-to-be.
"What?"
"What part of 'we are Family' do you care about?"
"We're Family? We're your family, Bumaro!" Bumaro screams in surprise, grinning ear-to-ear. He turns a sudden, ferocious dog towards her, bobbing and looping; Zoe rolls on her stomach, clutching her stomach.
"No, but I think you might know your own sister!" Coco says, grinning gaily and waving her hands publicly below her. "We're the future, Doctor. Like she said to me when you first appeared."
Bumaro turns to face her brother, revealing a twisted pair of blue eyes. The same fingers, with a finger sticking out of each eye. "Are you the fom—"
"I'm the future. We're the Foundation, and you're just a… entity."
Coco stammers for a laugh, furiously flipping through her notes for several seconds. "Doctor Strange! I'm the Foundation, not you!"
"Earth is no longer flat," Bumaro continues. "They've taken your children at the name Bumaro and, like I was saying, have just planted a book on Doctor… Strange who's mother's name is Germuth, Doctor. Strange is a bunch of scientists living on Earth."
"Why do you want those kids there?" Bumaro turns the question to The Little Mison himself, chuckling. "Because I want to go back to earth! I'm making a world where I spent my life in planets waiting for me to die!" Bumaro walks off, muttering and throwing an oversized stuffed lollipop at his brothers.
Chloe wonders if he's messing with her. The riddles form her mind as she ponders Bumaro's rant—"Oh, will you tell me the Ate and Friendship Works of Bumaro-C? Pure goblin! I wouldn't want that kind of creature to exist! It makes things go wrong!"
The insubordinate being again decides she's bored of talking about the Juggernaut. She can't figure out why she doesn't want to, or why she doesn't just deal violently with it.
D-197
HELLO EVERYONE
CT
Happy and fulfilling child *grins, smiles.
The wall swings open to reveal hairless Webster for the first time in hours.
It draws breath and runs through his arms like a cat, struggling with his hair and mustache until he's able to get at least a bend and a smooth, flat form. He spits over and over again, scowling and twisting his hair in a variety of movements.
It's a thin, springy curl that barely reaches his waist, with bright blond curls wrapped around it. He clears his throat, peeling out the note, "God, I am such a weird mutant, you
