Chapter Text
RIDDLE: Today Riddle had his favorite job in Heartslybul: hedgehog duty. He loved the hedgehogs with his whole heart, but he would never admit that to anyone. As he fed the hedgehogs he noticed a tiny pink blob curled into a ball. He immediately knew this to be bubblegum, the sickly pink hedgehog that he lovingly called Bubba. He noticed that she wasn’t moving towards the feeding station.
“Bubba?” He called because Bubba always answered to her nickname. No movement.
“BUBBA!” He called panic entering his voice. Still there was no answer.
Riddle picked up the tiny creature realizing how cold she was.
“Bubba?” He said with tears in his eyes.
“I knew you were sick, but we were treating you. How did this happen?” As he held the small hedgehog he started hyperventilating. “It’s all my fault! I should have taken you into the dorm! I knew you were sick, so why didn’t I do more to help you?”
In despair and desperation he screamed “Trey!”
TREY: Trey was busy painting the roses: not the best job at Heartslybul but definitely not the worst. He was in flow state until he heard someone screaming his name. It was unmistakably Riddle’s British voice.
Immediately worst case scenarios started rushing through his mind. “Has Riddle fallen and broken his leg? I know he’s a twig but how could he have done that? Have the hedgehogs turned against him and began to eat him? I’ll never get there in time! Has he died! Wait no he called for me he’s not dead.”
As he turned the corner he saw Riddle in a slumped position. He was riddled with sobs. As Trey looked at his face he saw a mix of pain, panic, sadness, anger, guilt.
“What’s wrong?” He asked with his gentle mom voice that he had been waiting to use.
Riddle held out his hands.
Trey saw a tiny blob immediately recognizing it as bubblegum, the youngest and smallest of the hedgehogs.
He was in shock. “How could this hedgehog have died under all of their watchful eyes? What were they supposed to do? There was no rule for this circumstance.”
He decided the first step was to get Riddle back to the dorm safely.
CATER: Trey came rushing into the dorm saying something about hedgehogs, but Cater was more concerned about the sobbing Riddle he was dragging behind him.
“# Is Riri okay?
“Not exactly” Trey said solemnly. “Bubblegum died this morning”
Riddle screamed bloody murder at the mention of Bubblegum. Causing Hunting season (Ace & Deuce) to come over. Cater knew they were there for the tea.
“We’re trying to figure out how to commemorate bubblegum in a special way” Trey said “but as you can see we’re not really getting anywhere.” He says glancing at Riddle who is now on the floor curled into a ball.
“No, I don't want to say goodbye to bubba, she was too young to die!” Riddle says through sobs.
“We will totes find a way to make bubblegum’s send off the absolute best of the best!” Cater said as normally as he could to show he was being serious.
“Uh yeah housewarden. We’ll make sure that bubblegum has a great afterlife” Ace said. Cater could tell Ace had no clue what was going on or who Bubblegum was, but at least he was trying.
“Do you know who Bubblegum is?” Ace asked Deuce quietly. “One of the hedgehogs they have names” Deuce responded. “Since when do they have names?”Ace asked “since forever you just weren’t listening when Riddle told us their names” Deuce said obviously a little frustrated with Ace. “oops…” Ace said before staying quiet.
FLOYD:“I’M BORRRRRRRED” Floyd said loudly.
“Well you could always go mushroom hunting with me” Jade said “He’s already forcing me to come with him” Azul mumbled under his breath. “We’re going camping for undisclosed reasons.”
After thinking for a while Jade said “On second thought you can’t join us.”
Floyd glanced over at Azul who mouthed the words “Help. Me.” This caused Floyd to snicker under his breath like Ruggie. “Mmmm I think I’m going to go visit Goldfishie” Floyd says finalizing his decision and leaving immediately.
Jade looks at Floyd with a knowing look. Floyd doesn’t know why though, for all he knows Jade just looks like that sometimes. He begins the trek to Heartslybul.