Never a "hey, Tretij, how are you?" Never a "Tretij, want to go get coffee?". No, instead it was "Mantis, we need you to pop that man's head like a grape." "Mantis, search his memories for answers." "Mantis, I can't reach the top shelf, levitate that down for me, would ya'?" And now, one to add to the list was "Mantis, I have a kid apparently and I need you to watch it as a temporary arrangement." Which meant that Mantis was stuck with it till Liquid finally decided to thaw his frozen heart and liberate his psychic friend of the burden, which in turn meant that Mantis would probably be stuck with the kid till someone died. He'd already fought you off a spare gas mask in order to ensure you didn't spit in it or whatever it was that 5 year olds did. You were 5 right? He wasn't sure, he could never tell anyways, you were just another snot nosed brat with loud thoughts that cluttered and distracted him during his day.

He took the gas mask from your head, pulling the strap off and over your billowing blonde hair, one of the few things you seemed to share with your father. As he put the extra mask back on the shelf he turned to you and spoke as if trying to teach a dog "That's not for you. I don't want you touching it or else I'm making you sleep in the shed."