Chapter Text
It wasn’t like Yid’Artu’Opgen was opposed to the idea of getting a good night’s sleep or anything. It’s just that, as one of the only two priests working to maintain the Temple’s online network, he didn’t exactly have the luxury of resting for a solid eight hours every night. Or six hours. Or even three hours most days. The whole business could come crashing down at any minute and damn it, he’d be awake when it did. At least, that was the worn-out excuse he gave himself as he half-stumbled out to the kitchen sink with his empty coffee mug at the ungodly hour of four o’clock in the morning.
Once he had found a place on the pile of dishes in which to put the cup where that he was fairly sure it wouldn’t topple over, he slumped into one of the folding chairs pushed up to the rickety card table and promptly fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later to the sound of Chot turning off his alarm clock and getting ready for school in the other room. Yid knew that he was going to get an earful from the kid about sleeping at the table again, but it was either that or flee back into the only other room in the apartment and get rightly called out for not cleaning up the other mountain of dishes that was still on his desk from the past week when Chot inevitably came in to give him some breakfast. It was a lose-lose situation, and he couldn’t be assed to get up if that was the case.
The door opened with a loud squeak and what seemed to be the total opposite of Yid stepped out; a sandy blond barely-thirteen-year-old whose smile was as infectious as it was bright. Luckily, ten years of raising the squirt had immunized Yid to the effects of his son’s smile, and the atmosphere of general disgruntlement and sleep deprivation remained solidly intact.
“Good morning,” Chot took the other seat at the table as he finished putting his socks and shoes on. “Did you come in here earlier? I thought I heard someone walking around.”
“Mm. Yeah.” Yid took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then stood to pour them both some juice. “Sorry I woke you.”
“I don’t mind.” Chot also stood up and grabbed the bread from its place in the pantry. He popped a couple pieces into the toaster and hopped up onto the counter to wait for it. “You’re the one that should be caring. Seriously, you’re gonna drop dead one of these days.”
“Great, that means you can collect the life insurance money and move out of this shit-hole.”
Chot snorted in response. “Right. Look, it’s not like the whole world is gonna collapse in on you if you take a night off.”
“I know, kid.”
Chot continued his lecture and Yid kept placating him in a sleepy monotone. In between comments, toast was buttered and passed across the table. Eventually, the conversation switched to Chot’s upcoming school day. While he was animatedly talking about the new book that the literature club would be reading, Yid felt a small smile creep onto his lips. He no longer saw a teenager sitting across from him. He saw a little boy, a toddler, bouncing in his highchair as he babbled nonsense with just as much enthusiasm as any adult.
Far too soon, it was time for Chot to go to school. He quickly hugged Yid, grabbed his bag, and left with a “have a nice day, Yiyi!” thrown back over his shoulder. Yid didn’t move from where he was standing for a short time, before sighing and turning his back to the door. He moved the dishes to the sink where he could ignore them for a while and went back to his dark, stagnant-aired room.
Before he sat down, he caught a whiff of himself and quickly changed his mind. It was as good of a time as any to shower, he supposed. He threw his dirty clothing onto the nearest pile and picked out some new ones. Experience had taught him that the more clothing you own, the less laundry you had to do, so he still had a decent amount of cleanish garments stuffed into his closet from which to pick from. Some digging produced a ratty old t-shirt, one he had taken a pair of scissors to in order to make it compliant with the Temple’s strict, albeit unconventional, clothing standards and a pair of jeans. He quickly showered, dressed, made himself another cup of coffee, then returned to his cave to finally get back to work.
The computer had shut itself off during his breakfast break, so while it booted back up, Yid used his phone to check the Temple Artu Tech Support e-mail. Miraculously, there were no new world-ending incidents that had taken place, but he did remind himself of the mysterious issue that was currently fucking with one of the Temple Wi-Fi networks in the 2000-A dimension, as well as a few other projects he had put off. Yid could already feel the stress headache coming on.
There were slower days of the job, to be sure, and those blessed days were spent either catching up on sleep, or more likely spending time with Chot and doing the various chores that were needed in order to survive. For the most part, though, he was busy trying to put out the numerous fires that tended to sprout up as the three Temples, Artu, Mordi, and Votul, continued to expand their reaches into new dimensions and find brand new ways to fuck up the systems that he and his coworker had painstakingly created. On top of being the designated IT monkeys, he and the other Man of Metal priest, Non’Votul’Obgen, were also shunted into serving as interdimensional telephone operators, tasked with connecting all internal Temple calls, messages, or general Wi-Fi use between the various “settled” universes and making sure no-one had any complaints. Non called the job varied and exciting. Yid called it a pain in the ass. But he was good at it. It was also what Man of Metal priests were expected to do, and he did what was expected of him, if nothing else.
The status icon next to Non’s profile picture was red, so Yid clicked open the other man’s log to see what he’d gotten done. On seeing nothing left unfinished, he started trying to fix some of the problems from the inbox that he had uncovered. As was typical of his workday, he quickly lost himself in his work. One problem led to another that needed to be investigated, and another, and so on for infinity. The hours flew by, with nothing but the sound of keyboard keys clacking and the mouse clicking to break the silence.
Non came and went as he pleased throughout the day, working when he could. He worked fewer hours now that he had his own family to worry about, and Yid didn’t mind picking up more than his portion of the work in order to give him some slack. Non had been incredibly understanding when Yid had first started caring for Chot, so it was the least he could do. It wasn’t like he had any other hobbies besides pissing around on his computer, so any time he wasn’t spending with Chot or doing basic survival things, he would probably be trying to improve the network’s functionality anyway. Chot had tried to convince him to get a different hobby, or at least listen to a podcast while he worked, but Yid always felt this gnawing at the back of his head that he was not being as efficient as he could be. Or should be. Either way.
Yid was in the middle of a particularly tedious bit of documentation when the silence was cut into by the monotone beeping that was his ringtone. He clicked his tongue. Interruptions were one of his least favorite things, and he briefly considered not answering it, but a glance at the screen revealed that the call was from the Artu Temple Head. He couldn’t exactly not answer his boss, never mind the fact that she was also his Temple Leader, so he picked up.
“What can I do for you, Temple Head, at—” he glanced at the time, a little past three in the afternoon, and did a quick conversion from Tokyo time to Winnipeg time, “—midnight?”
“I have a job for you.” The woman on the other end of the call rasped.
He should have figured. It wasn’t the first time this kind of call had come to him. Usually it wasn’t anything too important. Setting up security cams, installing a computer or printer for someone, the usual kind of IT job. Sometimes it was something else.
Sometimes it was a small toddler who had been recently orphaned, and Yid hadn’t really thought he’d be a good parent, because how could he be with his own family being so fucked? But the boy was in his arms now and grabbing his glasses and Temple Head was saying how everyone else was so busy, and if he didn’t take him then he might end up somewhere worse and it was only a kid, he could manage that, couldn’t he?—
He named him Cho. Chocho was a cute nickname, and it could be written in Japanese easily. His apartment was garbage, but it had an extra room and the Temple was providing supplies, so it wasn’t like he could complain.
Someone had to do it, after all. Some things just can’t be helped.
“Yid?” He snapped back to the present.
“I’m here, sorry. What’s the job?” He fished around a drawer for one of the numerous spiral notepads and a pencil.
“There’s a little village in Germany.”
“Germany is a bit out of my range, Temple Head.” He jotted down Germany regardless.
“I know, Yid, but the situation there is getting a little irritating. The village’s name is Märchenstadt. Lovely place, but apparently not so much recently. According to what we know there is a weak point in the dimensional fabric in the woods around there. Something of a portal, you know how it is. We’d normally just watch that without needing your expertise, but village people have started disappearing.”
Yid couldn’t help but snort. “Yeah, people going missing is what I would call ‘a little irritating’, too.” He was ignored.
“Temple Votul sent Uiv’Votul’Appat to keep an eye on the issue. She said it was best to keep a low profile so I only sent that one kid, what’s-his-name with the fluffy hair and too much free time—” That was probably Zev’Artu’Av, a recent high-school graduate from Temple Artu, “—to keep an eye on her. Things were just fine for a while, but recently something important has eaten up almost all my time and manpower, and Uiv has just put out an urgent call for an extra set of hands and tech. What I want you to do is go there, set up some cameras, and keep an eye on the screens for a bit.”
“How long is a bit, exactly?”
“Until I can get someone to replace you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Annoyance racked his very bones. “I’m too busy to just up and leave Japan to go babysit—”
“Yid, it is midnight and I decided to call you of all people. Do you think I’m happy about the situation?” Temple Head cut him off sharply, and Yid bit back the rest of his sentence. “I’ll cover your plane ticket. Just go see what she needs, and you can be back in a week, tops. You have my word.” Yid still hesitated. “I need you to do this for me, Yid. Please.”
With a sigh, he gritted out a “fine,” and began to jot down details as the Temple Head gave them. It really wasn’t too different from what she had had him do in the past, but that didn’t make him any less upset. Not only would he have to put his own work on hold, work that he was doing for the Temple he might add, but what would Chot say? He’d stayed on his own before, of course, this wasn’t the first time Yid had been asked to leave the country for work. It was just that Chot always worried so much about Yid. Every time he went somewhere far away, he’d always have to call his son every night and reassure him he was, in fact, eating and sleeping. It was touching, but also a bit worrying. Yid wondered where he went wrong raising the poor kid, to make him worry so much about his old man. Gods knew he never gave a shit about his own parents, and the feeling was very much mutual.
It didn’t help his growing anxiety that Temple Head was being purposefully vague about what exactly was going on in Märchenstadt, for security reasons. Everyone and their mother knew that whatever was told to Yid went directly to Chot’s ears too, so unless it was absolutely necessary information, Temple Head would not tell him important details until he was physically away from Chot. Yid found it a bit insulting, but he also knew that it was true, so he couldn’t really protest.
By the time he had hung up the phone, it was a little past four. His computer had shut down again due to not being used and he found that he couldn’t bring himself to turn it back on. Instead, he flopped into his unmade bed, arms crossed over his eyes, and began trying to find the right words to break the news to Chocho when he came home.