"It's not traffic again, is it?" Fletch asked with a frown at the rearview mirror.

"Nope." Barney chuckled. They didn't really take him for a tired old geezer, did they? "Not traffic, and not teenager. This is a new one."

"Tree?" Fletch suggested as the roads they drove along became lush with greenery outside of the city proper. "Or, ooh! Tank. Like the petrol tank on a car."

Barney grimaced as he shook his head. "No... good guesses, though."

"Tsetse fly."

Barney, for about the umpteenth time that fare, turned to stare at the man they called Skull. He was definitely an interesting bloke, in more ways than one. Probably had to have a lot going for him, what with the family in the back, and there was definitely a sort of classy gentlemanly charm around him. But some of the things he said were just... so far out there. "Tsetse fly?"

Skull gave an overpronounced shrug through the thick scarf draped around his shoulders. "Probably quite a few around here. And you might have better eyesight than we do."

Barney slowly shook his head. "Uh, nope. Not a fly. It's quite a bit bigger than that."

~~

Ghastly was tempted to ask just how long it had been, but decided he didn't really want to know what the answer was. He'd always thought the longer lifespan in sorcerers was a burden that the culture as a whole had adapted to, each individual in their own way. Gabe had been jarring enough; Ghastly didn't want to know about someone older than the universe itself. Than any universe.

"A delivery sounds grand," he agreed quietly, falling into step beside Dad. "Nearest hospital isn't too far away, either. We could walk it."

While carrying a boatload of teddy bears. Ghastly suppressed a sigh. As if the rest of his day hadn't been interesting enough.