Chapter Text
Raz could admit that reading the new Halloween issue of True Psychic Tales alone, in the woods, after dark, was maybe not his smartest idea, but upon noticing the unmistakable feeling of someone standing silently behind him, could he really be blamed for spinning around with telekinetic fists swinging?
The figure dodged, slamming into a tree as they did so. When they let out a string of curse words, Raz realized he recognized the voice.
“Frazie?”
He could see his older sister a little better now, as she rubbed the shoulder that had hit the tree hardest. “Yeah, it’s me, Pooter. Fuck , that hurt. Why’d you do that?”
“How was I supposed to know it was you? You didn’t even throw anything at me!”
Frazie stuck out her tongue a little bit. “Listen, Poots, just ‘cause you think you’re the main character of life doesn’t mean I have to be a one-note side character. I contain multitudes.”
“Wh-I don’t think I’m the main character of life!” Raz put a hand to his chest in false offense. “You’re thinking of Norma.”
Frazie laughed, but it wasn’t her normal, full-of-life laugh. It sounded too sharp, too uncomfortable, the way she laughed when Dion made a joke at the expense of psychics.
Raz’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay? Is something wrong?”
Frazie’s smile faltered, and she sat down gingerly next to Raz on the forest floor. “Not…wrong, exactly.” She paused, as if unsure what to say next. “Mom wanted me to tell you, she’s decided on a date.”
“For the family’s next show?” Raz asked. His stomach sank as he processed what that meant.
Frazie nodded. “Well, yeah. It’s a while away, but Mom wanted to allow for travel time, and give us time to get settled, and…what I was trying to say is that we’re leaving in a week.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” She looked over at him. “I’m assuming you want to stay here.”
Of course he did. It was the Psychonauts. It was everything he’d ever dreamed of. He opened his mouth to say so, but all that came out was, “I–” and then the tears started coming.
He wasn’t expecting that at all. He’d never been much of a crier, even as a baby, but for some reason all of a sudden there were sobs wracking his body, and he heard his sister whisper, “aw, c’mon, Raspy,” before her strong arms wrapped around him. He must have seemed in a bad way if she was willing to put up with him getting tears and snot on her shawl.
He didn’t know how long he stayed like that for, shaking and wailing like an injured toddler, but by the time he pulled away, his head was pounding and stuffy. He sniffed and ran his sleeve across his runny nose.
“Gross, Raz,” Frazie complained. “Don’t wipe your nose on the nice coat Agent Nein gave you. Here.” She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a pack of tissues.
“Thanks.” Raz wiped his eyes, blew his nose, and then looked back up at her. “So, I guess you anticipated I was gonna freak out about this?”
Frazie shrugged. “I dunno why, but I had a feeling.”
“Maybe it’s our psychic connection,” Raz teased, smiling weakly.
“Yeah, yeah.” Frazie rolled her eyes. “Why did you freak out so much? I mean, coming from the family runaway…”
“I…don’t know.” She had a point. He’d spent so long desperately trying to get away from his family, and now that he really was, he couldn’t handle the idea. “I guess…when I ran away, I didn’t really think it through. I just shoved some stuff in a bag and left. I didn’t think about how I would, like, actually survive on my own without a family.” He paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to put his overwhelming feelings into words. “And…things are different now, right? I don’t feel like I have to hide anymore. Our family won’t ever be perfect, but we’re better than we were before. I think we’re…how we were always supposed to be.”
“Desperately grappling with the fact that everything we thought we knew was a lie?” Frazie suggested. When Raz didn’t laugh, she added, “No, but I get what you mean, though. Like, I’ve been thinking about what our family would have been like if Maligula had never existed, and Ford hadn’t had to alter Nona’s and Dad’s memories. And this morning I saw Queepie showing Mom some levitation skills Morris taught him, and she was smiling and clapping and just looked so proud of him. I think if things had been different, there would have been more moments like that.”
Raz blinked, somewhat overcome at the idea of his mom being proud of her kids’ psychic prowess. “Yeah, exactly. I feel like before, all of the bad stuff kinda obscured the good. And now that all the lies are gone, I can focus on stuff like…how much I love you guys.”
His voice cracked on the last few words, and Frazie smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “C’mon, Pooter, you know how I feel about being sappy.” But after a second, she still added, “And I love you too.”
“You could stay, you know that, right?” Raz’s voice sounded smaller than he wanted it to. “There’s always room in the intern program. You could be able to train with other psychics your age. And…and stay with me.”
“Raz,” Frazie sighed, “you know I can’t do that. I never wanted to be a Psychonaut. I want to keep performing.” She seemed to deliberate for a moment before adding, “And besides…Agent Forsythe already offered me and Dion both an opportunity. For the summer.”
“What did she…” Raz trailed off as he realized what she was saying. “Are…you going to be a camp counselor? At Whispering Rock?” Frazie nodded. “And wait, what’s Dion going to do? He’s not, y’know, psychic.”
“He doesn’t need to be. The position gives me an opportunity to work on honing my powers, but he’s doing more of just regular counselor stuff. Same way there are janitors and stuff at the Motherlobe who aren’t psychic. Honestly, I think they’re just running low on summer camp staff who don’t have any world domination plots in the works.”
“Hey, Coach is done with all that!”
“Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Frazie stood, brushing herself off. “Anyways, I’ll let you get back to reading your nerdy little comic book.”
Raz wanted to say no, stay, I want to keep talking to you, but his mouth wouldn’t form the words. Instead he landed on, “g’night, Frazie.”
“Night.” She sighed. “You know we’ll come back, right? It’s not like we’re leaving forever. We’ll come back for holidays and stuff like that. And we’ll write to you. And call you whenever we’re staying somewhere with a phone. I guarantee you, once you’re on the phone with Mom and she’s asking you a million questions about whether you’re eating enough and staying fit and how things are going with Lili, you’ll forget why you ever missed us. Plus, Nona’s still staying here with Ford.” She grimaced a little—Frazie held a grudge against Ford that would probably last decades.
“You’ll come back for my eleventh birthday in a few months, right?” Raz asked quietly.
“Jesus Christ, your eleventh birthday. That’s too many. Makes me feel old to even think about that. Yeah, we’ll come back, if you aren’t too distracted by the million presents you’ll get because everyone here is nuts about you for some reason.” With that, she raised both arms over her head and cartwheeled off into the woods. Raz stared blankly at his comic, trying to process the past few minutes, before he heard Frazie’s voice add, “oh, and Razputin?”
“Hmm?” Raz looked up at the use of his full name, certain that meant she wanted to tell him something else heartfelt or important. Instead, he was met with the packet of tissues hitting him square in the forehead. He looked around for where Frazie had gone, but there was no trace of her, only her cheerful, cackling laughter.