Picnic Day

An old and unfinished and unfinished piece of writing about Trinity, Melody, Archer and Jaiden going on a picnic.

This picnic had been in the running for ages now, and everyone had been looking forward to it for weeks. Getting free time when you worked at Nocturna was a miracle, so much so that it took getting fired just to have a relaxing day in the woods with tasty snacks. Trillion had tried to be stressed about the lack of a secure job, and the fact that no one would hire them once they found out that they’d gotten fired from one of the biggest tech giants in New England, but they just couldn’t after feeling all of that weight being lifted off of their shoulders because of their new-found freedom. The only thing stressing them out was how painful their arm was as they got used to their prosthetic.

Melody actually seemed more stressed about this than Trillion, and that was a feat that not many accomplished. She had been stressing about money and how they were going to keep their apartment and how they’d find new jobs, which was probably the normal reaction to being fired now Trillion had thought about it. Archer was less worried about work, and more worried about the chip in her arm. She now had nearly no say in her own actions anymore, and really didn’t want to be forced into murder in the near future. And Jaiden was, as ever, far too chill. To be fair, he didn’t actually work, mainly for his own safety, so he didn’t particularly need to be stressed. The others didn’t really appreciate it though.

Despite all this, Jaiden decided to force everyone to relax for at least a day, and thought of no better way than the picnic they had been planning. Jaiden had been hoarding snacks for ages in preparation, mainly consisting of doritos, cheese and various fizzy drinks. That didn’t matter though, the main aim was to get everyone to relax and slowly unload their emotional baggage from last week. It would be easy to get Archer and Trillion to talk, but melody… not so much.

Bags full of snacks and blankets, they entered Magpie forest. It was a beautiful place all year round, with calm, baby blue water in the summer, and pearly white frosts in the winter. In the spring, dozens of flowers in all colours and sizes sprouted from the ground, making the entire place more colourful than a rainbow. But the most beautiful time of year was autumn. In the autumn, the leaves turned to colours of golden brown and red and orange, and as they fell, they would cover the lake in those stunning hues. Jaiden loved it more than he could describe, and cherished every moment he got to live in a place with such beautiful colours, rather than the bland, technological greys and blues of his childhood home.

Archer layed down the blanket, just as Melody asked, and Trillian laid out the snacks, neatly organised into piles. Jaiden then gathered the other blankets he had packed, just in case anyone got too cold, and layed one across his lap. Then, everyone sat down, and no one said a word. It wasn’t uncomfortable, it was nice actually. None of them had gotten any quiet in a long time now. It was always work, work, work, oh shit life changing revelation, more work, one or two mental breakdowns because of work and finally, more work. Now, they didn’t have to worry about that. Sure, they still had stress and problems that could never be fixed in their lifetimes, but that was different from before.

Jaiden was abruptly brought out of his train of thought by a loud snort from beside him. He quickly turned his head to see what was happening, only to see that Archer had attempted to get up to look at the lake, and fallen right back down again after slipping on some ice. Melody had burst out laughing, while Trillion had gone to help her up, chuckling quietly to themself. Archer had a frown on her face but Jaiden knew she found this funny too. She looked as if she wanted to murder Melody, but the slight smile on her face was obvious.

After walking, very, very carefully, back to where the group was seated, Archer huddled against Trillion, still scowling at Melody with daggers in her eyes. Trillion wrapped their arms around her to try and stop her from planning murder, which seemed to work. Trillion’s hugs always helped everyone feel better. They always bragged about how it was their superpower or something, to which Jaiden would always respond with something along the lines of ‘Wow, bro, shit super power.’

‘Hey, guys, wanna see me do the best skim you’ve ever seen in your life on the lake.’ Jaiden announced. It was less of a question, and more of a demand for the others to watch him do it. ‘I highly doubt it’ll be the best skim I've ever seen.’ Trillion deadpanned back, a smirk on their face as they said it. ‘If it isn’t, you owe all of us.’ Melody chimed in, most likely wanting to make Jaiden owe her a favour so that she could embarrass him. ‘OKAY, fine, if it isn’t the best thing ever, I owe you all a favour. As long as it doesn’t involve shapeshifting, don’t wanna get shot in the brain, you know?’ jackpot!

Jaiden walked up to the lake, feeling extremely confident as he did, with only a hint of concern in the back of his mind. He grabbed the flattest, smoothest stone he could find and prepared to throw it out onto the lake. It was such a perfect stone that he almost felt sad to lose it; but this was for his dignity, so he wasn’t going to back out because of something as silly as- ‘Come onnnnnnnn. Scared or something~?” He heard Archer yell from behind in a mocking tone, taunting him. Oh hell no, he was going to make the most epic throw of his life.

Finally, he threw the stone out onto the still, crystal lake, and it made six jumps before plummeting to the bottom of the icy cold water forever. ‘DAMN, that was impressive.’ Melody cheered, ‘I think that might’ve been the most epic skim ever.’ she placed heavy emphasis on the maybe. ‘Yeah, I don’t even have a way to mock you, that was just cool.’ Archer disappointedly yelled, resting her head on Trillions lap now. Trillion looked perfectly happy in this position; that, or they’d already expected that they wouldn’t be able to get up for a while. ‘Damn bro, you're actually being nice to me for once. It's, like, a miracle.’ Jaiden smirked and titled his head a bit. ‘It won't last, you still owe her an oreo.’ Trillion pointed out, grabbing 2 blankets from the pile, and wrapping one around themself, then laying one on Archer.

Archer was honestly like a cat once you got to know her, a slightly spiteful one at that (Why the hell was she still angry about one oreo from a year ago?) but still extremely similar. She liked warm places and snuggling up to people at the most inconvenient moments. Oh, and scratching the counters. She was terrible at cooking, and always managed to do it when using a knife. Jaiden always thought she might’ve been a cat in a past life of some kind.

“Stop staring at me weirdo.” She scolded, narrowing her eyes and trying to imitate the thoughtful stare Jaiden had directed at her. “Chill, dude, I was just thinking about how weird you are.” Jaiden replied, continuing to stare directly into Archer's eyes. “Good.” They stared at each other for a good few minutes in silence while Melody and Trillion sat there, watching them and finally realising the extent of their stubbornness.

“Okay, can we please move on from this… frankly weird exchange?” Archer darted her eyes away from Jaiden’s, and Jaiden chuckled. “HA, I win!” he yelled while punching the air