Steven just finished his shift at the British Museum. He was on their warning list for destroying the bathroom, but after an investigation and one trial later, his name is cleared and is deemed innocent. Jake knows a good lawyer, apparently.
Steven has no idea how Jake managed to get one on speed dial and He should be worried about the amount of questionable people who owe Jake, but at least he is back to working at the Museum again. Though some of the staff give him the side eye, Steven ignores them. Being around the things he is passionate about makes him smile.
It was just 3 days since they left Mr. Peterson at the Elderly Home. It was also his first successful job and he is feeling rather proud of himself, knowing Mr. Peterson is in more capable hands now. Just him imagining Mr. Peterson alone in his dirty house, with his failing memory for 3 months really makes Steven sad. Especially the fact that the old man is forgotten by his own family.
To make things worse, there is no one they can blame or kill. Sure Mr. Peterson's kids forgot about him but they didn't outright abuse him or have any malicious intention. They have their own families now and live in North America.
Steven remembered that he used to call his mom, his non-existent mother actually, almost everyday. Unlike Steven, Mr. Peterson is real and still alive. Why can't Mr. Peterson's kids call their father once a week, or even once a month? They should be worried about their own father. Stuff that Steven dreams of doing in real life.
Steven bought a Vegan sandwich for dinner and while eating, the hotline started ringing again, but as usual they were prank calls. The non-stop pranks are starting to discourage Steven. His high from his first job is starting to wane and Steven is getting less enthusiastic.
I'll handle the calls for now Steven, just take a break. Marc said one day.
Steven is not sure about giving the hotline phone to Marc since he feels that he should be responsible for it. He answered
I'm the one who came up with this idea Marc. I should handle this.
You don't trust me now? Marc asked.
What? No. It's not that I don't trust you. I trust you with my life. It's just that, this is not exactly your specialty. Steven answered.
I know how to answer a phone Steven, It's not that hard. And We're supposed to be a team. I promise I'll tell you if it is a serious one. Marc replied back. But Steven wasn't convinced. Steven feels he should be responsible for this and this alone. Mainly to not give more of the burden to Marc.
Marc had worked under Khonshu the longest and suffered the most. Now he knows it's really, really old baggage but Khonshu's intense demands made it worse for the past decade. This could be a way to get Marc to relax, but Marc is never keen on relaxing, especially if it involves Khonshu. Jake also added that he should put his own effort on this hotline thing and not keep it exclusively to Steven.
Steven, I know you think you can take care of this alone but trust me when I say that you can't. I tried doing this alone and it nearly crushed me. You have to share. Marc said.
He, Marc and Jake took turns on answering the hotline. Jake got a call the other day about delivering some flowers to a guy's girlfriend. A quick and easy job.
After 2 days, it was Steven's turn. "Hello. Midnight Hotline. Avatar of the Moon God speaking, How may I be of any assistance."
"Hello, Ugh yes. The poster says that you help for a penny? I'm sorry but I just want to ask if this is real. This is not a prank right?" A feminine voice asks. It sounds like a young adult, not deep enough to be old but not too young to be below 15.
"Yes, this is real. I won't force you to believe but I guarantee you in the poster is real." Steven,
"Oh, ugh. Shit I can't believe I'm doing this. But you said that you are willing to help in any way. Well…Um…Can you…um look for my cat? You see, I have this date and we made reservations for this high-end restaurant. I can't just cancel that, we waited for months and it cost a fortune. But now my cat Lily is missing. She's my baby"
"Don't worry Mam, I'll look for your kitty. You have my word. So, can you give me a description of how your cat looks? A picture is more preferred. We will also need to schedule a place to meet so I can return your lost cat."
Steven said to the feminine voice. The caller, though, sounded a bit reluctant to say their address.
"We can meet up in the park once you find Lily. I'll send you a picture of my cat.". The young caller said. "I'm not exactly comfortable about telling you my address." The caller explained further.
Steven is slightly hurt that the young lady doesn't trust him to tell him the address but tried to keep a cheerful voice and replied,
"Oh, that's okay Miss. I won't keep you busy any longer since you did say that you still have that date. But can I at least have your name? I do want to know who is calling"
"Ah, shit it's almost time. Anyway, thank you very much for this. Just call me back when you find Lily. And it's Ester, Ester Daniel" The caller, Ester, said.
"Thank you for calling Miss Daniel. I should be off now. Where did you last see her anyway? Do you have any ideas on where she would be? Like her favorite place?" Steven asked.
"Well, Lily does love to sit at the nearby window sills. Usually she would just be sleeping by my window but now she's not even in the house anymore." Ester explained.
"Thank you for that. I should be off now. Cheers" Steven said. Ester said her goodbyes and she hang-up immediately.
Marc, ever vigilant and protective, was quietly listening during the call.
So a lost cat huh? At least it's not a dog. He said to Steven in their head.
Do you have anything against dogs Marc? I've always wanted a pet but dog's are a bit high maintenance, so I picked a gold-fish. Steven said. Though Steven is now more aware that his preference to a gold-fish may be Marc's subconsciously influencing Steven's choices. Steven recalls a goldfish drawing framed in Marc's old room.
Oh, no I have nothing against dogs. It's just that I was not allowed to have pets before and well, there's this one old man in the neighborhood that has this black dog chained on his front lawn and it would bark at me everytime I get home from school. Like it was really aggressive, complete with foam on his mouth. I've had a bad view of dogs ever since. It's better now but I just can't shake that creepy feeling whenever I'm near any big black dog.
Marc explained. As a child he would naturally be terrified, but thinking back as an adult. Marc thinks it may be a large german shepherd or a doberman, details that he would normally ignore as a child. He also remembers that the lawn is very dirty with broken glass bottles, wood, trash bags and overgrown weeds. The place is a huge mess and clearly the work of a neglectful old man.
Marc also sensed Steven's feeling of hurt when Easter refused to give her address.
Ester doesn't hate you Steven, she barely knows you and now you are asking for her address. To be honest it sounds sketchy and creepy.
Marc reassured Steven.
It's not like I'm going to break in, I made it clear on the poster that this hotline is to help others.
Steven said to Marc.
Not everyone is going to believe or trust you immediately, remember when I first told you about Khonshu? You didn't believe me until you actually saw the old bird yourself.
Marc said.
Yeah, thanks for reminding me of the horrifying experience. Steven said. He has no idea why Khonshu decided to channel his inner "Sadako" and intentionally try to give Steven a heart attack. Though Khonshu stopped intentionally messing with the lights and windows, he still has a habit of nonchalantly materializing out of nowhere. And it still gives Steven a heart attack.
Steven packed his things and headed down. As soon as he reached the streets, he received a new message. Opening it, he sees a picture of a white cat with black and some brown spots.
This must be Lily, Steven thought. He can feel Marc agree, like a tingly feeling at the back of his head but it later subsided. Marc probably found this too mundane for him and went to sleep.
During Steven's scheduled "time", such as during his work. Marc and Jake usually just sleep. Steven thinks it's hard for him to tell, especially with Jake. There are actually little dangers in the Museum compared to out in one of Khonshu's hunts so it makes sense for Marc and Jake to not be that active, unless they just want to see how Steven is doing. Marc did try to accompany Steven but got so bored of listening to Steven ramble about some tablet, which is actually a really old tax record. And it was so boring, Marc ended up falling asleep. It took 3 hours for Steven to realize he had been talking to no one. Jake also noped out one time when Steven asked if Jake could do the inventory papers for him.
Steven started walking down the streets when he realized he still did not know where to start. He looked around and realized every window had a window sill. Lily could be everywhere in the city.
"Shit, where should I start?" Steven asked himself. He could ask Khonshu, but Steven doesn't want to come out as being dependent on the god. He is aware that he can sometimes get lost, Khonshu needed to point him in the right direction while calling him an idiot.
Asking for god's help would make him look like an idiot and prove that Khonshu was right to call him that.
Steven remembered the many times Khonshu would call him an idiot and it would just make Steven boil with humiliation and rage. Even before this whole Moon Knight thing, he was repeatedly insulted by his superior Donna. For Steven, it felt like they were looking down at him for indulging in a child-like passion he should have outgrown years ago.
Steven would end up lonely and depressed after that and sometimes indulge in a small fantasy of Donna apologizing to him, saying he is wonderful, great and all that jazz. While he does feel good, reality starts to sink and all that is left is a feeling of being pathetic enough to wish for something that is not realistic.
He did think about finding another job, but there is always something about Ancient Egyptian history, culture that just draws him in. Like he can't think about a life without this lost and mysterious civilization.
Now that he is trying to take this whole "Helping the Travelers of the night" thing more seriously, he is trying to do it in his own way. Khonshu was standing nearby, and was watching closely as always. He also noticed that Steven was headed the other way. He could yell at the idiot, but instead he manifested a huge gust of wind to get Steven's attention. The wind was so strong that papers are now being thrown everywhere, a light trashcan ended up airborn and flew directly at Steven's forehead.
"Ouch, What the hell you big fuck!?" Steven, as expected, is furious and is now nursing his skull.
"You're going the other way idiot." Khonshu said. Steven looked around and found the god standing a short distance away. Steven glared at Khonshu, to others it would look like he is glaring at a lamp post. The man inspected his forehead and found a clear and painful bump on it.
"The suit can heal your injury if you want to, so stop being dramatic about your forehead." Khonshu said. His deep and dry voice echoes across the street, but only one man can hear it.
"Oh Bugger off! You're the one who threw a garbage can at me instead of just telling me to go the other way!" Steven said.
"And will you actually listen? I recall you even refused to follow my directions and nearly got run-over by a train, so I had to find other means of bringing my point across" Khonshu said back.
Steven remembered when he got them lost multiple times, but he refused to admit it in front of the god. Admitting his mistake is like admitting defeat and he is not going to bow down to Khonshu. Instead he avoided eye contact with the god. Looking around, he noticed that people are starting to notice him yelling at nothing.
"And stop making me look crazy." He said in a quiet voice. Low enough so no one can hear but Steven is sure that Khonshu can. He started walking towards the park, passing stores and turning around until he could see the iron gates that separate the park from the common street.
"Aren't you already considered crazy by specialists of your time?" Khonshu asked.
"Yeah, remind the crazy guy why they are crazy, doesn't help that I'm talking with a thousand year old mummified bird with a skull for a head. Which, btw, doesn't look anything like your images. You are supposed to have a falcon head. Why is your current head a skull now? And it's not even a falcon skull, since when were you associated with ravens and vengeance?"
"Yes, I'm surprised you only noticed that now. " Khonshu remarked.
"Kind of hard not to, your head is a literal floating skull. Are you trying to be the lovechild of the headless horsemen and a mummy?" Steven said. Now that Khonshu mentioned it, he was never actually bothered with the skull head months ago, it just felt right.
Actually, it did bother him but an intense sense of dread and fear washed over him all of a sudden. So he just stopped questioning and just accepted it. It was only recently when Khonshu hit his head with a trash can that he actually remembered that he really was bothered by it.
Steven's face ends up reflecting this. His forehead creases as he tries to recall why he was not bothered by this fact. He knows his memory can be murky but as an amateur Egyptologist, at least he thinks he is, he should have been deeply disturbed at how inaccurate Khonshu's current appearance is.
Everything about Khonshu is different. While the other Egyptian Gods managed to look and sound exactly like what the records tell, Khonshu is the only one that seems to be radically different. As if it is not even the same god anymore. It just doesn't make sense.
"You're probably wondering why is it that you were never bothered with my head before but only now? Well don't be, you'll forget about it in a while. Everyone else does eventually" Khonshu said, sounding resigned and sad all of a sudden. Steven actually noticed this and is even more bothered now since he never heard Khonshu sound so melancholic. Actually he did, back in the desert, just before He and Khonshu turned back to the night sky.
"Wait, what do you mean I'll forget it in a while. What are you talking about?" Steven demanded.
"What were we talking about again? Mind reminding me Steven" Khonshu asks back, not even trying to pretend that he is faking it. His tone is so obvious that it just made Steven even more frustrated.
"You were just telling me to… ugh…something about a head? Yeah, You were telling me to go the other way. And you hit me on the head with a trash can! Which is a complete dick move by the way. Next time just tell me instead of just smacking stuff on my forehead." Steven said.
Khonshu noticed that Steven never mentioned the god's head. "Is that all of it?"
"Yeah, I think so. Why? Is there something else I forgot about?"
"...No… None that concerns you."
Steven ends up scoffing at Khonshu's answer. "Well, stop being weird about it. And help me find Ester's cat, consider this a payback for literally throwing stuff at me." He says
"You can start by looking up in the trees, felines love to climb high places." Khonshu said. Steven starts looking up, going at each tree one by one, grumbling about useless gods and mummy birds.