I wheeled up to the table and carefully maneuvered my wheelchair into position.

"Hnngh," I grunted in greeting, gesturing at my sushi platter. "Ghrmmm?"

Katherine's head snapped to me.

I began nomming the sushi.

"So Alex, that dodgeball head bonking was pretty intense..." Iogann started.

"Hrrmmmph," I nodded sagely at Iogann's comment, stuffing another piece of sushi in my mouth.

"Are you... okay?" Iogann asked, his fluffy gray antennae twitching with concern.

"Mrrrrgh," I shrugged, then gestured at my head with chopsticks and made an explosion sound. "Grmmmm. No Word. Only grunt."

Katherine's shoulders tensed slightly beside me.

"Hnngh?" I grunted at her.

"The nurse said you had a big concussion..." Iogann continued, looking increasingly confused by my caveman communication style. "That was a grisly way to go down by the way... I think that's what my doom-sense warned about."

"Nghhhh," I waved dismissively, offering him a California roll with an eloquent "Hrm?"

"Ah yea, don't mind if I do," Iogann accepted the roll. "Thanks."

Katherine's claws tightened around her canteen as I continued my grunt-based conversation with Iogann.

"Why are you not using words? Did the hit to your head affect your speech?" Iogann asked.

"Pffffftt," I snorted, rolling my eyes.

Katherine growled from where she was sitting, her long tail beginning to lash dangerously.

I dug into my bag and pulled out an old USSR army flask, complete with hammer and sickle emblem that I'd bought in one of Thundertown's tourist shops. I unscrewed the cap with exaggerated care and took a long swig, making sure to wink at Katherine as I did so. Then I put on a pair of dark, wide sunglasses.

"THAT'S IT!" Katherine slammed her hands on the table, making everyone's drinks jump. "Are you seriously mocking me right now?!"

"Hrrmm?" I grunted innocently, taking another sip from my flask.

"Stop. That." Each word was punctuated by her tail lashing against her wheelchair. "Stop with the stupid grunting and the... the flask and the... everything!"

"Everything?" I blinked.

"Sis..." Iogann started, his antennae wiggling in the holes of his wide Snufkin hat.

“Piss off, Jan!" Katherine snapped at her half-brother and turned to me. "You! Why the fuck you even in a wheelchair? You were walking fine this morning!”

"Got hit in the head with a dodgeball courtesy of an angry wyrm," I shrugged, dropping the grunting act. "The nurse insisted I use this fancy chair until I recover. Pretty sweet ride though."

"And the flask?" Katherine demanded.

"This?" I held up the USSR flask. "Just delicious water. Thought that your flask was neat, so I got one myself. Cheers."

I clinked the flask against hers with a sly grin.

“And glasses?!” She hiss-growled.

“Just wanted to be cool like you,” I grinned. "Am I not allowed to copy your Schwarzenegger-inspired look?"

Katherine growled, her claws tightening around her own flask until the metal creaked.

"Sis, chill," Iogann placed his fuzzy hand on her shoulder. "Alex is just being friendly. Em actually did knock him out pretty hard during gym."

"And you!" Katherine snapped at her brother. "Why are you hovering over me? Why aren't you luncheoning with your precious troupe?"

Iogann sighed heavily. "Because Em and Cinder are at each other's throats again and I am not needed unless actual gateway opening happens. What, can't I just spend some quality time with my sister?"

"Oh, so I'm your lunch backup plan when your cool friends are fighting?" She growled.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Iogann's antennae drooped. "I just... miss hanging out with you. It's not healthy to eat lunch alone in a corner."

"Whatever," Katherine muttered, taking a long drink from her flask. "Go back to your stupid-ass troupe. I'm sure they need you more than I do. Maybe you'll get ninety people killed this time around, if that many even show up to your stupid show."

"What happened at the Spring's End Festival wasn't..."

"Wasn't your fault? Wasn't preventable? Yeah okay. Which part of bringing high-level abominations from doomed dimensions makes sense in your brainless moth-head?"

"Emerald..." Iogann began.

"Is a moron," Katherine snapped. "Her knights are morons. You are a moron. Cass is a moron. Even if nobody dies tonight, people aren't coming to applaud you. They're coming to laugh at you morons. Read the Omnigram posts about yourselves! Your inverted-dungeoneering is peak idiocy."

The Mothman opened his mouth to defend himself.

"Not done!" She barked, silencing him. "Nobody actually wants to see you summon monsters from other dimensions just so Em can try to punch them in the face! It's not art, it's not meaningful, it's just... stupid! I told you that it was stupid years ago, Iogann. I told you to study dimensional anchoring, to learn to create proper two-way gates. But noooooo... you morons want to be special snowflakes..."

"Actually," I interjected, trying to brighten the excessive hostility radiating from the Stollwurm, "I'd love to see that show. When is it?"

Both siblings turned to stare at me.

"Today after school," Iogann said quietly, looking like he wanted to sink into the floor.

"Perfect!" I beamed. "Wouldn't miss it for the world! Sounds absolutely metal - interdimensional gates, monster fights, the potential for catastrophic failure... Sign me up!"

"Did that dodgeball knock out what little sense you had?" Katherine demanded, echoing Cinder's opinion from this morning.

"Probably!" I agreed cheerfully. "But come on - how often do you get to see live interdimensional monster summoning? That's like... peak entertainment right there! 'Sides, I want to see my angel sing."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Your... angel?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, Cinder's got this amazing voice," I grinned. "You should hear her sing! Though I guess you probably have, back when you were friends..."

"We were never friends," Katherine growled. "And Cass isn't some angel. She's just another self-absorbed knobtwit following Em's stupid philosophy."

"Sis..." Iogann started.

"Don't 'sis' me," Katherine snapped. "You know I'm right. This whole troupe thing is going to end badly. Everything around you ends badly."

The Mothman stared at his sister with deep, gray-black eyes.

"You're there because you're drawn to disasters." Katherine laughed bitterly. "Go on, admit it. You're not there for the art, or leveling up, or whatever other bullshit Em spews - you're there because each show ends with a catastrophe!"

"That's not..."

"Yes it is!" Katherine obliterated her brother with her chiding tone, jabbing at him with a dark clawed finger. "You can't help it, can you? Just like how you couldn't help getting involved in that Spring's End Festival disaster. You're literally programmed to seek out the biggest potential clusterfuck possible! If Em's dumb-ass troupe actually succeeded at anything you wouldn't be anywhere near it! Come on–say it ‘I’m a dustbrain addicted to disasters!’"

"Okay, timeout!" I clapped my hands together loudly, drawing both siblings' attention. "While this family therapy session is fascinating, I've got a better idea. Katherine, why don't you come to the show too?"

"No, nuh-huh, no way," the Stollwurm shook her head. "You think I want to be eaten or infested by some random cosmic bullshit? Do I look suicidal to you?"

"Actually, yes," I said, eyeing her flask meaningfully. "But that's not the point. The point is - if you're so convinced this show is going to be a disaster, wouldn't you want to be there to say 'I told you so' when it all goes wrong? Plus, you could document the whole thing! Think of the artistic possibilities - capturing the moment everything falls apart..."

Katherine's tail lashed angrily. "I don't need to be there to know it's going to be a shitshow."

"But wouldn't you rather see it firsthand?" I pressed. "Come on, where's your artistic spirit?"

"Dead," she said coldly.

"Very dark," I whistled. "You should write Romantic poetry. Or song lyrics! Maybe collaborate with Cinder on some proper goth music. Draw D&D some posters?"

Katherine's tail lashed dangerously. "You think this is funny? You think my situation is some kind of joke? It's enough that this idiot is constantly feeding off my disaster of a life." She waved a gloved hand at Iogann. "Now you're on my case too? Why in the Abyss would I want to contribute to anything Em does? She's a psychopathic, controlling beerch who should go die in a hole. Get off my case unless you want me to send you to the deep again and leave you there."

"Eh, your deep doesn't scare me anymore," I grinned, tapping my temple. "Already got some quality void time in this morning. Really puts things in perspective, ya know?"

Katherine's claws opened and closed. "You're either incredibly brave or incredibly recklessly stupid. I'm leaning towards the second."

"Actually," I said. "I'm incredibly curious. I thought that your power is psychic, not dimensional."

"I'm related to this aimless twat," Katherine waved a hand at Iogann. "Obviously, my power is dimensional."

"So the deep is an actual place then? Is it dimensionally aligned with local topography? Can you use it to... go through walls to reach otherwise inaccessible places?" I asked.

Katherine stared at me. My mind was already reeling excitedly with possibilities. A dimensional power that permitted one to walk into anywhere across darkness? The potential applications were endless - bank vaults, secure facilities, anywhere with valuable data or resources...

"Why are you so interested in the mechanics of my abilities?" She demanded.

"Pure scientific curiosity!" I assured her quickly. Perhaps too quickly. "Just trying to understand how different Omnithean powers work. Like, hypothetically speaking, could you use the deep to go anywhere on Earth?"

"Why would you want to know something like that?" She demanded.

I realized I'd been a bit too eager, too direct. Time to pivot.

"Art," I said. "I'm thinking about a photography project. Conceptual stuff about liminal spaces, boundaries between dimensions. Your power sounds fascinating from an artistic perspective."

"You're lying." She stated sharply.

"Fine," I crossed my arms, copying her stance. "I want to go into forbidden places and take photos of forbidden things. Happy?"

Katherine pursed her lips. Her tail lashed once, then stilled.

"Appreciate the honesty, but you're not getting anywhere near my dimensional abilities," she said flatly. "Nice try."

"Worth a shot," I shrugged. "Want some sushi? I can't finish this gargantuan platter myself."

"Why'd you buy an entire sushi boat then?" She demanded. "You some kind of moron who can't count his daddy’s money?"

"Nah," I replied. "My parents are dead and buried and they left me only debts.”

“Then how are you affording sushi?”

“Meal cards for the destitute,” I shrugged, jiggling my Invader Xim lanyard. “Anywayyyss… Sushi boats are good for breaking the ice between potential art rivals."

I slid the sushi boat over to Katherine, making boat noises and then a crash noise when it collided with her camo-coat wrapped chest.

Katherine stared at the sushi boat now resting against her bulky coat. "I already told you–I'm not interested in rivals," she muttered, pushing the boat back slightly. "And I haven't even seen a single drawing of yours."

"The lady demands dinner and a show?" I grinned. "Very well. I aim to please."

I reached behind me and pulled out my sketchbook and a set of pens and pencils, my hands already moving across the page.

Katherine stared.

I began drawing with quick, energetic strokes.

The drawing took shape: Katherine, transformed into a massive kaiju-sized version of herself, her dark scales gleaming. She towered over the sushi boat, her tail whipping through the air like a destructive tentacle.

I tagged the boat as "SUSHTANIK!" adding various detail to it to make it resemble Titanic.

Tiny catgirl passengers fired smol machine guns at her scales.

Katherine stared at the drawing with goggle-hidden eyes.

"Huh," she muttered. "So you CAN draw after all." Despite her resistance, her claws reached out and plucked a piece of sushi from the boat.

Iogann leaned over. "Is that... me?" He pointed at a tiny version of himself sitting on the edge of the SUSHTANIK.

"Yep," I grinned. "Captain Iogann, observing the disaster of his sinking ship due to Katzilla."

The Mothman chuckled appreciatively. Katherine huffed, puffing up like an angry pigeon in her coat.

"Hey, Io, can you feed off drawings of disasters?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Your Gateway skill," I elaborated. "Does potential disaster energy work the same way whether it's real or imagined? Like, could a... drawing of a potential catastrophe activate your abilities?"

Iogann's gray eyes went wide. "That's... an interesting theory. No one's ever asked me that before. I do appreciate watching disaster movies."

"He's got like 400 terabytes of disaster porn," Katherine commented. "Nothing but plane crashes and earthquakes and other depressing bullshit."

"They're not... that!" Iogann protested, blushing with dark grays dancing across his face fluff. "They're... research materials!"

"Sure, Jan," Katherine scoffed.

"Hmmm. Can you open a gateway to this drawing of a disaster?" I asked the Mothman.

"I don't think so," he said.

"Want to try it?" I asked with a sly grin.

"Mkay." Iogann pulled out a weathered harmonica from his pocket. His face scrounged up in concentration as he began to play a haunting, discordant melody.

Nothing happened.

"See?" Katherine muttered. "Jan is hopeless. Case closed.”

"Maybe there's not enough emotional connection there," I tapped my chin staring at his harmonica. "Katherine's power, if I understand it correctly, operated on trying to scare me as a target. Maybe you need a target that appeals to you."

"What do you mean?" He asked.