Nov 12 (15 GP)
3rd Person POV
It's a brand new day, birds are singing. Roosters are probably crowing somewhere, and a phone rang in the background.
RING, RING, RING
Om nom squirmed, trying to sleep despite the noise. Eventually, the noise became too much.
With a yawn and a stretch, Om Nom slowly got up and began to move across the bed.
Sleeping in the same clothes she had on yesterday was Gwen Stay. Mouth open, arms all over the place, and a little bit of drool in the corner of her mouth.
Om Nom gave her an unimpressed look as he pressed his little nub-like foot into her face.
Gwen stirred awake, slowly opening her eyes to the sight of Om Nom.
".....Oh?" For a moment, she lay there in silence. "So… it wasn't a dream." Gwen let out a sigh as she examined her surroundings.
She was in Leo's Bedroom, in his bed to be more precise. Nothing scandalous, it's just her and Om Nom, no Leo.
RING, RING, RING
Her phone rang again, with a yawn she answered it.
"Hey, Dad," she greeted him over the phone.
"Morning, Honey." Her Dad responded with a yawn.
"Late night?"
"Yes, and it'll probably stay like that for the rest of the week." Gwen could hear the exhaustion in his voice. "I just wanted to make sure you got home safe."
Gwen glanced at her surroundings. "Safe and sound." She lied.
In her defense, he would flip if he knew she slept over at a boy's place.
"Well, I just wanted to make sure you got home safely. I'll let you get ready for school, see you tonight."
"Bye, Dad." She hung up the phone. "Wait, did he say school?"
===
Leo's POV
It might have taken all night, but they did it.
In front of him was a monstrosity of engineering, The Frankenpack. As in Frankenstein, Compact.
It was a monstrosity, three Compact Servers hooked into each other. A water cooler being used as, well, water cooling. The suction from a vacuum being used as a fan, and the occasional Nintendo Wii start-up sound.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out Conrad's hard drive. When the Compact servers began to overload, Conrad put himself into a sleep mode to prevent his hardware from burning out.
Fortunately, I was able to extract his hard drive before Harry found it, or Ned noticed his coding. Despite Conrad secretly supporting Instagram as its automated support line, I'm not sure if he's ready for human interaction.
Either way, Conrad basically already automated the tech support chat. So it should be safe to leave him unconnected for a while, I'll reconnect him later in secret.
Though that does remind me, should I introduce him to Gwen? If I do, I'll probably have to modify his code just to be safe.
"ZZZ." Ned let out a snore.
In the corner of the garage on an old pullout bed was a sleeping Ned and Peter.
They passed out around 3 in the morning. They probably could have lasted longer if I owned any form of coffee or caffeine in general.
Since it was late, I invited them to stay over. Gwen slept in my room, and Harry took the couch in the living room. Which meant, Ned and Peter had to share the pullout couch in the garage.
Even though I had an extra bed, it's in my parent's old room. Fortunately, both Peter and Harry understood that the room was off limits.
Makes sense, they both know what it's like to lose a parent.
Either way, I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of a sleeping Ned and Peter. Somehow during the night, the two of them rolled over and began to cuddle each other.
A smirk formed on my face as I captioned the image.
"And post." With a smirk, I posted it to Omni Work's official Instagram account.
A chuckle escaped my mouth, sadly. It was cut short as Gwen burst into the room, nearly tripping over the electrical cable we rerouted from the dryer.
"It's Friday!" Gwen yelled out, startling Ned and Peter awake.
"So?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We have school in an hour."
"....No"
Gwen gave me an annoyed look. "What do you mean no?"
"As in, no, I'm not going to school. It's Friday, I've been awake for over 24 hours. I'm staying home, and sleeping in." Even if I can last a long time without sleep, it's nice to take a break every once in a while.
Gwen pinched her brow. "Leo, you can't just not go to school."
===
"Thank you-COUGH-ma'am." With a final cough, I hung up the call.
Harry, Peter, and Ned just stared at me with an unimpressed look.
"I can't believe you're skipping school." Gwen spoke with disappointment.
"It's not skipping if it's an excused absence." I let out an exaggerated cough. "I'm sick." I spoke in a pitiful voice.
"Good for you." Harry spoke from the couch, annoyed and tired. "Unfortunately, the rest of us still have to go." Harry pulled out his phone as he began to dial his driver to pick him up.
"Yoink." Grabbing Harry's phone, I began to dial the school.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, worried.
"Give me a moment." I placed two fingers against my throat. "Harry," My voice deepened, "Harry," The tone shifted. "Harry." The ringing stops.
"Midtown High's Front Office, how may I be of assistance?" A voice asked over the phone.
"This is Norman Osbrone, I'm calling to inform you that my son has fallen ill and will be unable to attend today." I spoke in a perfect copy of Norman's voice.
"Full name, and birthday." She asked.
I glanced at Harry. "...December 13, 1991." He answered hesitantly.
Huh, we share a birthday month. Who would've known?
"Harry Osborn, December 13, 1991."
"Thank you, sir."
After hanging up the phone, I noticed everybody giving me a confused but amazed look.
"How'd you do that?" Peter asked.
"I'm very good at voice impressions." Technically I'm using my voice mimicry ability, but they don't need to know that. "Now, who's next?"
"....Can you do me?" Ned asked as he held up his phone.
"Maybe, you lived with your grandma, right? Do you have a video of her or something? So I can get her voice down." Ned pulled out his phone and began to look through his video gallery.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Peter asked nervously.
"We just built one of the most advanced, though messy, servers in one night…I think we can miss one day of school." I explained as Ned showed me a video of his grandma.
"Can you really copy it?" Ned asked.
"Of course, Apo." I spoke in a perfect imitation of his grandma's voice. "Now, when's your birthday?"
"November 10, 1991." Ned answered.
A silence filled the room as we stared at Ned.
"Your birthday was Wednesday?" Gwen asked, disappointed in herself.
Peter facepalmed. "I can't believe we forgot your birthday."
A deep, long sigh left my mouth. "....I'll make a cake."
===
3rd Person POV
"Guys, seriously. This is too much." Ned told the group.
"Too late." Gwen told him as she watched Leo work in the kitchen.
"I've never seen him this dedicated to something." Harry spoke in mock amazement.
"I'm back." Peter announced as he stepped inside.
Leo sent him out a while ago to pick up some things from the store, mainly some fresh fruits, and some candles.
After Leo called everybody out sick, he immediately began work on a cake for Ned.
"Does anybody else hear scratching?" Ned asked, gesturing to Leo's room.
Gwen gave him a confused look, but quickly shifted to one of panic. Remembering that she left Om Nom in Leo's room.
"Leo!?" Gwen called.
"On it, watch my cake." He told her as he entered his room.
A few moments later, he walked out with a cardboard box that he placed in a separate room.
"What's in the box?" Harry asked.
"Beeswaxs." Leo answered.
"Beeswax?" Peter and Ned spoke in unison.
"As in, none of your beeswax." Leo clarified as he went back to the kitchen.
"Screw that." Harry got up and approached the door, only for it to be locked.
"Leave it be, Harry." Peter told him.
Harry scoffed, and shifted his focus to Gwen. "What is it?"
"What's is, what?" Gwen feigns ignorance.
"You're a terrible liar." Harry told her. "Now, what is it? A dog? Cat?... Lizard?"
"What makes you think it's an animal?" Ned asked.
"Didn't you literally say you heard scratching."
Ned tried to think of a response, but just shrugged when he couldn't.
Their conversation was cut short as Leo returned. "Bad news, good news, and bad news. Bad news, the cake won't be ready for a couple more hours. Good news, I'm making burgers in the meantime. Bad news, they won't be ready for another hour."
The group let out an annoyed sigh.
"I'm leaving." Harry sat up.
"How are you going to explain being at home instead of school?"
Harry sat back down.
"What should we do in the meantime?" Peter asked.
A silence filled the room. "....charade." Ned pitched.
"Orrrrr." Leo interrupted. "Give me a moment." He left the room.
The group sat there in silence. "Anybody else noticed that besides me and Peter, we don't really hang out." Ned pointed out.
"Peter and I." Harry corrected, bored.
"Seriously? What are you, an English teacher?" Gwen called him out, annoyed.
"No, I'm bored."
"Ned makes a point." Peter interrupted. "Besides F.E.A.S.T, we don't really hang out. We mainly just have business meetings, and stuff."
"What about Halloween?" Harry asked.
"True, but I meant more like. Going to the movies, or an amusement park." Peter suggested.
For a moment, Harry just stared. "I'm going to be honest, that sounds terrible."
"I have returned." Leo announced, carrying a stack of books.
"What are those?" Ned asked, as Leo began to hand them out.
"Just some things I've been working on for a while."
Harry read out the title. "Boku No Hero Academia, Volume 1?"
"The Walking Dead #1: Days Gone Bye… cool." Ned immediately flipped it open and began to read.
"Danny Phantom #1; Mystery Meat." Peter examined the cover, a boy with white hair wearing a black hazmat suit with the letter D on his chest.
"Iron Giant #1." Gwen examined in confusion. "You didn't tell me you made comics."
Leo shrugged. "I've been doing it for years, I have a stockpile of sketches, and drawings I've never published."
He lied, but in his defense. It's not like he can tell the truth. That he's copying stories from his original world that either haven't been created yet, or just don't exist.
He shifted his focus to Harry. "Hey, hypothetical. Could Omni Wotk-"
"It's not in our budget." Harry cut him off.
Leo frowned. It sucked when you have an idea that could make you rich, but lack the resources to utilize said idea.
===
Leo's POV
Bob was one of the more strange templates, but I don't hate it.
"I'm walking on sunshine, whooah. I'm walking in the sunshine, whoooah." Not my favorite song, but my options are limited.
Either way, I'm humming a song outside. Enjoying a cloudy afternoon, cooking burgers on my dad's old grill.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group is reading manga and comics at an old clash porch table I cleaned up a while ago.
"Wait, I'm confused. Is a human with ghost power, or is he a human who can turn into a ghost?" Peter asked as he read through Danny Phantom, Issue 1.
Well, a graphic novel version of it. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask. The show doesn't exist in this universe, which means there's nothing stopping me from recreating it as my own.
While I could technically make the cartoon, it would probably take forever and be tedious as hell. So for now, a graphic novel will have to do.
"Wait, it just ends there!" Ned exclaimed in shock as he finished The Walking Dead, issue 1. "How is he going to get out of the tank? Who's on the other end of the radio? Where's his family?"
"You'll just have to read the next issue." I told him as I flipped a burger.
"It feels like I'm reading a metaphor for Mutants." Harry stated bounty, flipping through Boku No Hero Academia, volume 1.
"How?" Peter asked.
"The main character, Izuku. Has no powers, but was born in a world filled with power. In the book, they have something called the quirk gene. Which is a lot like the mutant gene, but Izuku is one of the few people born without one. So everybody sees him as inferior, or a freak. Basically how we see mutants, it's basically a role reversal." Harry explained, he paused for a moment. "....MJ can never know you wrote this, she'll never shut up about it."
"Wasn't the point I was making, but I'll take the warning to heart." I responded as I buttered the burger buns.
Gwen flipped through her book, The Iron Giant, issue 1. "Hogarth seems nice, but I'm still a little confused. What's the iron giant, when is he going to show?" She asked.
Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the whole story in one graphic novel so I had to split it up. The first one ends right as Hogarth found the giant, with the image of him in shock as a massive shadow covers him.
Though, it's already pretty long. I'll probably have to cut it up in more parts.
"Fair enough, by the way. Food's ready."
===
"Ahhh." Ned let out a moan that sounded like it belonged in a bedroom.
My face scrunched in disgust. "Don't make this weird."
"Sorry, it's just." Ned's face relaxed in bliss. "This burger is amazing."
"It really is." Peter added, his plate already empty.
"If you cook like this everyday, then I'm moving in." Gwen joked as she devoured her food, sauce around the edges of his mouth.
"Where'd you learn how to cook like this?" Harry asked as he both examined, and ate his burger. "We have a five star chef at the penthouse, and this is the best burger I've ever tasted."
"Well, now we know. If Omni work goes under, you can always become a chef." Ned joked.
"I would rather choose death." I've worked in the restaurant business before… never again.
The group burst into laughter, it was nice.
We talked for hours, played a game of uno. Eventually I brought out the cake, a tres leches with strawberries. Ned and Gwen ate until they were stuffed, and Peter asked for a plate for Aunt May.
It's strange, having fun with them. I remember them being fictional characters, but in moments like this. Those memories just vanished, instead. I'm just hanging out with friends, something I didn't do much in my past life.
Might as well enjoy it, tomorrow is going to be a busy day. It's Omni Work's grand opening"...well, sort of.