CC Iris Zee 4

"Yaaaawwwwwnnn..."
>smacking your lips you lazily look back at the radio.
>No news in a while sine Richie said the words "Mission Complete."
"Ehh, forget it. I'll just grab some carrots or something."
>Must fight the munchies.
>Sitting around waiting listlessly because you feel useless and cannot realistically help in any way shape or form, only to be told that everything is done before you can even try is hungry business.
>If you get a pony some carrots, he'll probably ask for a glass of water.
>And, chances are, if you get a glass of water, you'll get something else to go with it.
>Celery sticks, peanut butter (that traitorous bastard, so delicious), some graham crackers and honey and finishing it all off with some cookies.
>Next time you will not feed the hungry pony. At this rate you'll run yourself out of food faster than you can blink.
>You go ahead and activate the radio again while eating.
"Yo Rich, Iris. Anything new you wanna share? Are you back home? Is Richie coming back here? Who was the person there?"
>Richie comes back over the W-T with an annoyed tone.
>"Aww keep your pants on. Its a secret and you'll find out when I get back over to your place. Alright?"
"Yeah, alright."
>A secret. Mannnnnn...
>You keep on omnomnoming before Iris' voice comes in.
>"Hey...do you mind being called CC?"
"...what?"
>"I'm asking if you're okay with being called CC, or Carbon Copy. Are you?"
>You hmm and think on a response.
>You could easily say yeah and move on, but you feel you want to be more honest with her than that.
>What if that's why she's asking?
>Because she's picking up on your hesitation to adopt your name?
"Ahh...well...hold on a second."
>Come to think of it, nobody or pony has used your name since all this started.
"I guess I'm okay with it, but its still jarring to think about."
>"Alright...thank you."
"Yeah...no problem, Iris."
>A little voice in your head is yelling the word warning into your ear.
>Another is saying "boner justified, she loves you!"
>Mentally telling the two to shut it, you reactivate the walkie talkie.
"Alright, so it pizza fine, Richie?"
>"HELL yeah it is!"
>You can hear the wind whipping by with a "woohoo!" from Richie as he likely does some kind of aerial maneuver in joy.
>Well that's good. You can distract yourself from the feelings you're getting about Iris with making a fucking pizza.
>Getting one from the freezer was easy, if ridiculously cold against your teeth.
>Opening the box with your teeth LIKE A STALLION!
>Tear off the plastic LIKE A STALLION!
>SET THE HEAT!
>SET THE TIMER!
>WAIT FOR IT TO BE WARM!
>...
>KEEEEP waiting, okay this is boring.
>You ready out the crap for taking the pizza OUT of the oven and you start realizing you're gonna have some difficulties.
>This stems om not being able to grab the pizza at both sides and its gonna be a helluva hot surface...but then again, you'll have Richie and you can just teamwork your way to food.
>Unless it burns before he arrives.
>...
"Okay...this is going to be a hilariously big headache."
>When Richie arrives, you thankfully still have time on the clock.
>"Hahaa! Where is that pizza? How'd you manage to do it?"
"It's still in the oven, will be for a few more minutes. I actually have no clue how to get it out without help. You think your wings have the prehensile strength to grab it with oven mitts on?"
>"Have the whoo-the whattie?"
"Prehensile. It means it has a free range of movement. Its the word used to describe your wing's hand-like movement capabilities."
>"Idunno man, sounds technical."

>You end up wasting hours explaining words, leading to explanations of other words, and so on and so forth.
>How he doesn't know what regurgitate means is beyond you.
>And yes, you and he took out the pizza together with a towel on the metal handles of the cookie sheet you made it on.
>"Oh yeah, while we're still talking."
"Yeah?"
>"Saw a whole shitload of cops on the way over, they probably already caught the guy who was creeping on Iris."
"Who was creeping?"
>"Ahh..you know..."
>Richie rotates a hoof, then fills his mouth with slightly burned pizza to give himself more time.
>"That guy who sent her snailmail."
"Oh yeah...who was that, anyway?"
>He gulps down some more pizza.
>Yes. Like it was a drink.
>"I think it was that hacksaw guy from 4chan. You know, that one who disappeared not too long ago?"
"...really?!"
>"Ha, who knows. He knew the quote and he had a saw, he had Iris' address and he was definitely out to kill. Not too strong willed or anything. Might have been someone who took it to heart? It was a kid, really."
"Huh..."
>You're not sure if you're disappointed with this new knowledge or not.
>"But yeah, anyway, the whole day's been pretty great. And its funny, if you think about it, just how boring it was for us before."
"...what?"
>Boring?
"We weren't boring."
>You force the pizza into your mouth even as you feel your face scrunch up.
>Woohoo bold-faced lies!
>"Well, we sat around and played video games, and watched a cartoon with our remaining time."
"Wasn't that boring for me. Was hanging out with Iris and I boring?"
>Richie backpedals some, shifting his gaze and sputtering excuses.
>"I-i pff no! You guys are great, it just got stale, you know?"
>He flutters his wings and sighs, sitting down.
>This is pretty different from the other day...
"Hey, Rich, you sure you're doing alright?"
>"I'm still torn, I think."
"On what?"
>He waves a hoof around.
>"This. All this. This wish fulfillment mixed into a nightmare thing. Its just a strange thing to have happen...and you think you'll be good with it but then...it happens and you're not. You know?"
"I think I know. Like be careful what you wish for?"
>"A little."
>He just kinda rolls up and flops onto his side.
>"Do I want to be a pegasus? Or a human? Because honestly, I think I had it best in the first few days. Weighed less, had wings, a reason to do exercise...now everything I do is exercise because I can't do much of anything like I used to."
"I follow."
>"No, you really don't."
>Now you take offense to that.
"I said I understand. Missing what used to be, what seemed like was once something cool is now a necessity, a part of life!"
>"And I'm saying you just don't get it..."
>His voice holds no tone of anger, but seems defeated.
"..."
>...
>Well, is that it? Nothing more to say?
>Criminy, you're out of things to say. You've covered all the basics.
>What else is there?
>What more can you do?
>"The thing is...I feel useless. And that was hard to say so don't ask me to repeat it...but earlier, Iris handled herself...you're pretty much self sufficient. I still need you two just to eat or not go stir crazy. I can articulate with my wings, but I don't even lift! I can't do as much as I want to do to just LIVE..."
>"...I don't know if I'd rather go back to the way things were or how they were before the final staged, but I don't like it anymore...I want to be me again--and not because I can't beat Iris in video games."
"...I'm sorry, Rich."
>"Thanks..."
"It's no trouble. We're friends. I want to help and understand, Rich. Just talk to me if you got something on your mind, right?"
>"Right...was I making any sense? Because I don't think I made it clear what I was talking about."
"A little here, a little there. I know where you're coming from. But not much else. Let's go play something I'm bad at that's versus."
>He smiles a bit at that, and stretches.
>"I'll take you up on that."
>You sigh, knowing full well this conversation is only delayed and not over.
>But at least everything else is going well right?
>...right?

>The next morning, the two of you are awoken by a phone call from Iris.
>"Hey there, guys!"
"Hey Iris."
>Richie nods.
"Richie nods."
>"Oh, I don't think I can hear that."
>Richie makes a face.
"Yeah, anyway, whats up?"
>"Oh you know...stuff. A cop came here the other night. He found one of Richie's feathers."
>The two of you immediately look to his wings, which he splays open for investigation.
>...it makes you feel horribly uncomfortable to look at.
>Richie finally speaks up. "Well, I can't tell if any are missing. I don't exactly have the patience to count em all."
"How do you know it's his?"
>"Well, I got to look out the window and see his flashlight's beam illuminate a GIANT RED FEATHER so I think that counts."
>Eesh.
"Okay, well. That's nice."
>"Does he even preen them?"
>"Do I even what. No. No that's...no."
"What's no? Preening? That's when birds fix their wings right?"
>He scrunches his face and shifts around, folding his wings again.
>"It's my feathered hands, I didn't really think about it. Like fingernails."
"I guess...so if the cop's got proof of Richie, what should we do?"
>"I have no idea, it's up to you and Rich to find out. I just wanted to pass along the message."
>A thought comes to mind suddenly, just before you say your goodbyes.
"...wait, actually I think I have a better question."
>"Uh huh?"
>Wow, she sounds hopeful.
"The real question is:why was the police at your house? There had to be some kind of reason that they were there, and did they come inside the house?"
>"No...just checked the backyard."
"I think they're on to us. They know they don't need to get a search warrant to check for proof, and just snooping around the back for feathers and then leaving proves it. We thought we were being sneaky, but I'm starting to believe we're being monitored."
>"Wow...that's intense!"
>Richie looks impressed.
>"So, mister conspiracy, do you think the one who changed us controls the police too?"
"No, but now that its out there, it may well be a possibility. What if they removed the feather so that nobody else could find proof of us?"