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Another portal and closure, it was just another day for the friendly neighborhood spiderman. Though this time instead of taking the tiny travelers to SHIELD spiderman decided not to. He couldn’t say no to the big sad eyes on the one dressed like Captain America. The ironman bean had also tried puppy dog eyes but to a lesser effect.
The Tsums were snuggled down in his school backpack, at least they were a known entity. He could handle a pair of Tsums, bad guys all wrapped up portal gone, and it wasn’t even supper time. Thankfully! He had homework to do after all, and figured he could make a space for the tsums in his closet and finally get rid of some clothes and do the cleaning aunt May wanted him to do earlier in the month.
Peter cleaned out a little drawer for the Tsums using one of his older undershirts to line it and showed it off to them. They seemed pleased with it waddling around and inspecting the closet. He saved a bit of his food from dinner for the Tsums and they poked it and seemed uninterested in the salad and carrots, maybe they weren’t hungry.
Right homework was to be done, maybe if he finished he could play a game or something. Math was easy for Peter and he quickly finished the equations, science class just needed a proper report done, he was lucky that his partners had good notes as he typed up the report. Fingers flying across the keyboard, unaware of his small audience.
He saw a carrot waddle by as he was looking over Ned’s notes on the results, he was feeling a bit hungry and plucked it off Cap Tsum’s back. Cap was smiling
“tsum!”
“Thank you.”
In the end with his homework done Peter ended up reading a bit of his english assignment to the Tsums that had piled up on his pillow listening intently to Peter's retelling of “The Great Gatsby”.
“I’m going to write my essay on how he was secretly a leprechaun. Gold, girls, and green make it more interesting. I feel like all the ‘great american classics’ are all depressing.”
Peter tossed the book on his desk and flicked the lamp off and wiggled down in his bed. The tsums wiggled in next to him. He didn’t mind they were soft and warm, he didn’t usually move much during his sleep so no worries.
-
After a brutal fight with Scorpion Peter managed to get home and wash up without his Aunt seeing the livid bruises on his sides and the few scratches he’d gotten when he’d fallen through a tree. He was trying to come up with a story as to why he looked like he’d been in a fight with an angry cat, when he stumbled into his room to find the Tsums playing with his legos.
Actually it was just IronTsum playing with legos, CapTsum was reading one of his war books. He closed the door quietly and watched IronTsum build a house around CapTsum who was so invested in the book that he didn’t seem to notice the walls growing brick by brick. Peter cleaned up a bit and settled in his bed and tried to finish reading the rest of the Gatsby but it was bad and the Tsums were far more entertaining.
“Tsum?”
“Tsum tsum!”
CapTsum was airlifted by IronTsum to peter the lego house was pretty much done but roofless. They seemed concerned over the bruises and Peter tried pulling his nightshirt over the evidence. They crawled up his side with their soft yet clingy nubs. He could feel them touching the bruise gently. Peter winced lifting his arm and peaking down his shirt the two Tsums seemed to be vibrating and purring, more like a buzzing it seemed and there was an odd glow.
The ache was the first to lessen and then the bright red purple bloch began to fade and shrink. The glow and tingling from the buzzing vibrations lessened and Peter was staring at a green faded bruise with no ache. He lowered his arm and waited for them to climb out from his shirt.
“Tsum?”
“Wow, you guys are something.”
There was a gurgle noise from Peter’s belly, he was famished and the Tsums also looked hungry.
“I’m going to get us a snack, and then we’ll talk about your magic healing thing?”
“Tsum.” they coursed together as they cuddled up on the pillow looking quite tuckered out. He got up and noticed that his scratches were gone, the soreness in his ankle was missing and the zit on his chin was also vanquished. He didn’t know they could heal and he felt bad for not feeding them more, they must have expended a lot of energy to do that. Peter settled on some pizza rolls, they would be filling enough for now.
He managed to burn his mouth yet again, as he popped a pouch into his mouth right out of chef mike. He ducked out of aunt May’s embrace stuttering about homework as she rolled her eyes after remarking about the second dinner meal. He ate a few more just to make sure his tongue was totally burnt, because they tasted better boiling hot.
Peter did pull a few apart for the tsums, thinking that they wouldn’t want to burn their tongues.
“Hey guys have some pizza rolls,”
“Tsum?”
Iron Tsum hovered over to the plate, blinking at the golden brown pastries. Cap Tsum poked one with his fore nub then jumped back when it rolled. He made a sort of rumbly noise with his body. Peter could see the sides wiggle with the noise. They both looked up at Peter and he could feel the confusion.
“It's food, See?”
He showed off eating one, it wasn’t as hot now.
“Tsum!”
Cap Tsum looked and Peter could feel the sadness, he paused munching on it. Watching Iron Tsum push one around making strange noises at it. It sort of looked like a smaller tsum next to Iron Tsum.
“Oh no these are tsums, hey look it's cheese and tomato sauce, not blood, and this is a pastry. I’d never eat a tsum. Don’t be sad.”
Peter scooped both of them up and held them to his chest, murmuring apologies. Stroking their plush bodies with his thumb and pressing a kiss on their backs. Both tsums relaxed in his hands the sadness was gone and the warm fuzzy feeling of love settled over him like a blanket.
“So you guys can heal? That's pretty cool, it may come in handy. I do get a lot of scrapes.”
“SsssTSum!”
Iron Tsum responded while nuzzling Peter’s cheek.
He took them to bed, where they cuddled up on his pillow, excreting a minty smell. As they attempted to burrow into the pillow. The pizza rolls and plate pushed under his desk, forgotten.
-
Having the Tsums was fortuitous Peter was able to take a thrashing from crime fight, go home, finish his homework, eat, and be healed and then play with the tsums. Or he could read to them and once they had a dramatic reenactment of Romeo and Juliet. He wasn’t sure if they were getting fatter though Iron Tsum seemed less agile than before, and Cap Tsum had gotten stuck on his back more often and was less likely to flip himself over.
His closet smelt of mint so strongly that Aunt May had said something about it, though it had been very positive about grooming and proper hygiene. Apparently Peter’s room had a sort of musty male smell prior, which she’d brought in other glade plug ins if he wanted to expand his aromas. The tsum’s had not liked the lilac one and it made Pete’s nose runny too so he stuck with the fresh linen to appease his aunt, and not cause any other issues on his end.
After the first dramatics with the pizza roles the Tsum’s had been more inclined to eat the rolls but only if Peter ate them too. Otherwise they were pretty much ignored in favor of snuggling. He fed them other stuff, Iron Tsum had a thing for broccoli cooked or raw. Though he wasn’t sure it was because he’d told them it had a lot of iron in them or if Iron Tsum liked the taste. His farts were certainly rank, and Cap Tsum could be seen batting the offending florets out of Iron Tsum’s reach if presented on a plate.
Cap Tsum likes apples but not the skins, Peter found that adorable the Tsum would just lay on an apple slice and munch his way down but avoid the skins like a plague. Peeling apples was hard and Peter rather liked the skins so when Iron Tsum was no longer eating them he’d clean the plate.
They still healed him up when they deemed he needed it. A few of the battles had just been a few scratches. They didn’t seem to be eager to heal him from that, he didn’t blame them, healing seemed to take a lot of energy from them. They did now sleep in his closet now during the night, probably best after that one time he’d rolled over on Iron Tsum in his sleep on accident. He still missed their night shuffles and presence though.
The only thing really bugging him was, well it was hard to explain. Peter knew he’d only had the two but now there were more. In his closet, in a nest in the corner behind his clothes, in the morning he could see the light from his lamp reflecting off their eyes. So the original two were kind of chunky but the ones in the nest looked rather small. They would make a low humming noise that sounded like a ‘Zum’ when he’d moved closer to count.
He’s pretty sure there were ten five of each, maybe the chunky two feed them? Peter decides to offer the two more food for their babies. Make sure to explicitly offer the food as baby food, cause the big Tsums really enjoy eating together. Peter frowns trying to think of healthier foods so the babies don’t get fat. More veggies and fruits. They do eat pizza rolls now but it makes them gassy and hyper. A terrible combination, Tsum tsums while cute, could probably clear out a room if they needed to with the farts.
-
OKAY
-
Peter would have to admit, there was a problem, a big one in his minty closet that hummed ‘Zum’. Perhaps the food combined with his midterms study binge snack fiesta had kicked the Tsum’s reproduction into overdrive. One day it had been ten, then twenty and now he’d counted about forty, but they kept moving and he sure he missed a few. The smaller tsums in his closet would join with healing him from battle and piling up in his bed right after for a reading or two, they also liked playing with legos.
Peter had numerous problems, he actually stopped feeding them which didn’t reduce the numbers but did stop them multiplying it seemed for a short while. They had become partial to the snack food and would beg for it if he brought it to his room. Peter had a very bad track record of ignoring Cap Tsum’s puppy eyes, and half of the tsum hive, were Cap tsums.
He’d taken to calling it a hive because it was clear that's what they were, the little nests were made out of paper and spit? He wasn’t sure, any ways the back of his closet was covered in nests. With the two bigger ones as the queen and king. He’d finally done some research and learned that Tsums didn’t even need food to survive.
So it was his secret to bear he didn’t want to break up the family, so telling SHIELD was out, and he wasn’t sure if telling the avengers would have SHIELD get involved so he carefully managed it. The tsum’s seemed pretty good at avoiding his aunt May thankfully and they didn’t want to go outside either.
Who was he kidding? It was great having so many even if he worried a lot about them while he was away. They would snuggle up in his bed, motivate him to get his class work done on time. Fill the void from being part of the stark internship and then being distanced from the avengers and that stuff. Probably because he was a kid, he tried to understand the rationale, but if he was honest to himself as he confided to the tsums.
The adults had done a lot of silly, stupid things, and he wanted to help; but after germany Ironman had been incredibly distant. After he turned down the invitation, he still wasn’t sure if he’d made the right choice; it had felt like a test at the time, but right as well; But now? When he did assist the bigger crimes that came into his area, he kinda felt like the others were on another page, that and hardly anyone communicated with him.
Besides hawkeye, and occasionally a terse response from ironman. Hawkeye would chat with him on the private com all the time, not necessarily about the battle either, and Peter allowed it because it was nice, okay maybe he was a bit lonely in his double life. Not now, he had 42 on tsum tsums to chat with. Even if they were all cap and iron tsum’s they have varying personalities, which had been once keyed to food but he’d managed to wean them off it now.
-
There was another portal at that bank, the baddies that had opened it the first time were still in jail. Peter had to double check on his phone as he swung towards it. This time the avengers were on the scene, Peter sat back at first unsure if they needed him to fight off what seemed to be the rest of the baddies gang. Well until a monster joined the fray, the fight seemed to flip from the avengers rounding up the bad guys to the avengers failing to prevent the monster from making more damage at the bank and the baddies slipping away.
Not on his watch he jumped down and webbed them up nicely. Making sure they couldn’t wiggle out and they could breath. He admired his handy work when Hawkeye contacted him on the com.
“Hey spiderman, monster on your six.”
“Oh shit!”
Peter jumped out of the way of a claw and webbed away quickly that had been close. The creature spun in on itself to bat away Captain America’s shield, and also weave around the Black Widow. It's amber fur was on end and it looked very much like a disgruntled cat, from what Peter could see from his secured perch.
As he watches he notices the creature doesn’t seem interested in fighting, it's dodging and weaving while calling out. Was it looking for something? The constant attacks have gotten under its fur it seems though as it hurls a parked car at Captain America, taking him and Black widow out of the fight. He can hear Clint cussing on the coms as he darts over to the other two.
The monster however isn’t interested in them, Peter feels his heart drop as he realizes that the cold orange eyes are tracking Ironman as he swoops down. He can see the powerful hind limbs twitch under the creature, like a great cat, the tail twitched and everything stood still for a moment as Peter cried out on the Avenger’s channel for Ironman to pull back.
He sees Hawkeye on his periphery jerk up from the car with Black widow bruised but safe. As he leaps back into the fray, trying to distract the monster, to no avail. The dark black and amber creature leaped up and snatched Ironman right out of the air swinging the man like a dolly as it traveled back to the ground.
Peter webs it up into a net, and Ironman is tossed into the wall of the bank in the scuttle, Peter tries to keep his focus on the beast as it turns it's hulking head towards him. Gold claws digging deep furrows in the cement. He’s worried more about Ironman who hasn’t moved, Cap is calling for him over the coms, sounding frantic.
The creature tilts its head, the small ears under the gold horns twitch, it lowers the face closer and Peter can see a row of very sharp teeth, and yet his spider senses aren’t going wild. The webbing doesn’t seem to hold much to the fur, there are clumps of the amber fur in some webbing on the ground, He looks up just in time to see that the creature is sniffing him.
Making a guttural ‘tzum,’ noise at Peter.
“The tsums? Safe. I have them.”
The creature looks to be about to sit back when Peter’s senses go nuts and he sees that Hawkeye is aiming at the beast.
“Wait no!”
Too late the arrow hits and Peter is sent flying by a back hand, he hits the curb hard. Pain from impact against the unforgiving road, not the back hand. That barely stung and no claws. The beast screams high spitting and then it ends in a rumble so low that Peter can only feel it in his chest and the rattling of windows.
It jumps up and makes it escape leaving the avengers and Spiderman bloody and bruised. He can hear hawkeye calling out that the creature is heading west and could someone please track it. Peter gets up and his leg hurts something fierce, hobbling over to Hawkeye.
“Big help Spider dude, you okay?”
“I’m fine but I think the creature was looking for something, it spoke to me.”
“The baddies are hydra and it could be another unwilling experiment, I’ll let Shield know. Stay safe.”
-
Peter sniffed as he swung home carefully, his suit did smell of mint, maybe that's what calmed the creature down? The two tsums must belong to it, or maybe it was taking care of them. He enters his room through the open window and peels out of his uniform. Putting weight on his leg hurts too much, he wonders if it's broken. He lay down on his bed carefully. It had been a very stressful day, he needed a nap.
As he dosed he could hear his closet doors open with a creak and the humming of forty two Tsums invade the quiet. It was a pleasant sort of background noise, like the rain machine noise he had during the night. He could feel them climb up the bed. They made a ladder and then they would haul up the tsums that made the ladder he’d seen them do it before. The big Iron Tsum hovered in front of his face, Peter managed to smile at him.
“TSUM!”
“Yeah, it was scared, looking for you. Big fluffy thing.”
Peter’s words were slurred and it was hard to explain what had happened and IronTsum seemingly understood and patted Peter on the forehead while barking out orders to the others as they piled on to Peter. Cap tsum settled under his chin he could tell by the sheer size and squish factor.
Peter struggled to articulate that they could stay in his bed forever, but Iron tsum held his nub against Peter’s lips as it to stop him from trying. Probably best he wasn’t feeling so good but now the tsums were cuddled up close and everything was warm and snugly as the hummed him to sleep.
-
Back at the Avengers compound with Steve trying to get Tony into medical and failing. Probably due to being bed ridden with Natasha keeping a sharp eye on Steve to keep him in bed. The car had hit his head, the current joke is that Steve headbutted the car to save Natasha. It wasn’t far from the truth, with one angry looking shiner and the rest of his face all swollen, Tony was more worried about Steve.
“Hey, wasn’t the Spider guy limping too? Why isn’t he allowed medical here anyways?”
Hawkeye broke the current staring match as he sauntered in with a few treated scrapes and a fast food bag. Steve jerked it had been his initiative to keep the boy out of the big fights after Tony had brought him to Germany. It wasn’t right to have a child in the battle field, Tony straightened up eyes going distant. Perhaps Tony had been right that Spiderman would still seek out danger.
“He was limping?”
“Yeah took a swat and hit the curb hard, not as hard as you tin man.”
“I need to go check.”
Hawkeye shrugged and offered the brown bag to Natasha who looked very pleased about everything.
“Tony!”
Steve objected but the smile Natasha was giving him was unnerving, he folded his arms aborting the attempt to lift himself out of the bed. He sighs as Tony walks stiffly out to go check up in the spider-ling without checking into medical first. He doesn’t necessarily agree but understands that if tony doesn’t do this now he’ll worry more and get bitchy with everyone.
-
Peter was hurt, Peter was hurt, and he’d isolated the young man. After all that support and help to abandon him? Tony had hated it but the rest of the team had come to the consensus that it was best to wait till he was older. Tony had followed the petty crimes and help; Peter had been doing in his community a bit obsessively.
Having to be distant on the coms during a battle where Peter was actively taken part physically hurt Tony. He was grateful that Hawkeye was at least keeping Peter in the loop and that Karen was able to get on the frequency to help when the AI deemed it necessary. Now though he was regretting it, He was pretty sure if they’d welcomed Peter he’d still be in this mess but at least with a proper support and medical.
Aunt May was surprised to see him as he disengaged the armor but let him in.
“He’s probably doing homework, he misses you.”
Those simple words made Tony feel worse as he stiffly climbed the stairs. Without the suit supporting him he definitely felt the ache in his back and the pain in his muscles. He ought to have checked into medical but this was more important. He needed to see that Peter was okay, as he pushed his way into the room.
His mind was already conjuring the worst, and so when he found Peter under a pile of stuffed animals he was taken aback. The door closed behind him and he limped closer. The room smelt heavily of mint much like Bruce’s lab when he was checking over the Tsums that lived at the compound. Tony halted as he realized the pile was inface a bunch of Tsums.
“Peter? Peter are you okay?!”
Peter startled and the Tsums stopped their low humming and they turned their little gem eyes on Tony.
“No, no not mr. stark...Watch out!”
Peter mumbled in his sleep, brow wrinkled and Tony moved over to the bed ready to shake him out of it when the tsums swarmed up in a huge red and blue cloud. The angry tzuming noise had Tony’s hairs up on end, remembering a bit too late that Tsums could be quite territorial if their primary caretaker was in distress. He took a step back right on a lego that he could feel right though his expensive shoe.
Falling back and vision blacked out by the angry Tsums as they descended upon him. It didn’t hurt but the Tzumming was loud and agitating they were probably trying to get him to leave the room. He couldn’t his whole body now horizontal had decided this was far more comfortable than being upright and protested. He could hear Peter trying to talk them down though that was good. He didn’t sound in pain so maybe the swarm had healed him?
The avengers had tried to enlist tsums into the force as emotional supports and for their healing purposes, but the darn things wanted to help fight. Also they were incredibly fickle and only a few had come aboard and really only to certain people. Thor and Bruce had one, Antman had three, even Jarvis had one which Tony was happy for if not utterly confused by that.
“Please don’t hurt Mr. Stark, he's my friend.”
The tsums actually changed their pitch in the hum. There was one tsumming up a storm, Tony felt like it was talking about him in an unflattering light.
“We were in the same fight, he got smashed into a wall. He is Ironman you know.”
“Tsum, tsum tsum tsum, TSSSum!”
“That would be nice. I think?”
“Tsum!”
Then a lovely warm feeling spread out over his chest and Tony’s body fuzzed up in unbridled joy. The tsums moved away from his face so he could see a concerned Peter Parker kneeling next to him.
“Just sleep, it works better when you do.”
Tony offered a small nod.
-
The beast could smell the mint, and he shook off his tail easily and doubled back through the underground. He knew that Spiderman was based out of Queens, too bad he couldn’t take the subway right now, pity his feet hurt they weren’t really for walking on the grit of cement. Once he was topside he’d be able to track the tsums by scent alone.
He’d get back what was stolen from him, and return to his home. Maybe report back into work, maybe they wouldn’t know this? Damn hydra, he’d been kidnapped and turned into some beauty and the beast, knock off. He just wanted to spend time with t=his tsums curled up and binging a nature show, tsums loved that stuff.
-
Peter was worried the Tsum were taking a very long time with the healing. He’d been rubbing their little bodies and giving them lots of affection and soul energy throughout the healing. It seemed to be concentrated around the chest and arc reactor. Oh the shrapnel? Could they remove it? He did his best to heap on the praise and as much energy as he could.
Iron tsum stopped him near the end, Cap tsum nudged him to the bed and he obliged feeling dead on his feet, he’d watched from his bed, worried about his mentor, and hoping that the tsums could fix whatever they’d found.
About five minutes later Peter woke up as the door opened and the ironman armor walked in, the door was closed gently and the head turned towards Tony on the floor covered in the soft glow of tsum light.
“JARVIS?”
Peter asked sleepily.
“I see sir is being healed, let me help.”
If Peter had been more awake he’d probably find the orange soul light coming from ironman amazing, now however it was more satisfied that someone else could help after he’d nearly drained himself.
“Rest.”
“Tsum.”
-
Tony woke up in Peter’s bed, he could hear a keyboard in use and there was a bulky presence next to the bed. He could see a blue glow and relaxed Jarvis was here probably following that safety protocol.
“J, what happened?”
The keyboard noise stopped.
“You have been healed of your wounds by Mr. Parker’s tsums. They detected the shrapnel and while unable to remove the metal have encapsulated them in scar tissue, in some cases they nudged them out of the way of integral systems. Not by much they’d already healed young sir here.”
The hand gestured to Peter who was still working on his computer a bit slower though.
“He in turn fed them more soul energy to heal you, I took over. You have been asleep for about forty five minutes. We’ve been going over the hive.”
Tony blinked the hive? The tsums! he blinked the sands out of his eyes and looked for the swarm of them but all he saw were two fat ones. Iron tsum nestled on jarvis’ shoulder and the other in Peter's lap snoring.
Hive? He could hear a gentle humming from the closet and the whole room smelt of mint. But also a scratching noise like claws on wood. Ironman straightened up hands going up ready to fire repulsors at the open window. Peter rose carefully placing the sleeping tsum on the pillow next to Tony.
“Sir, that creature is here.”
“Wait, don't shoot.”
Peter darted to the window, and Tony startled but Jarvis was blocking him from the window. He could hear Peter talking to that thing, it had snatched him right out of the sky against all odds.
“It's okay, they’re here you can smell them right? Come on oh be careful!”
Peter stood back as the dark furred creature shimmied through the window, sniffing the whole way. Iron tsum dove straight into the furry chest once it was in the room. Cap tsum also threw himself at the creature they were grunting tsum at a different frequency.
The creatures fur shifted from black and amber to a blue and white, the gold claws and horns seemed to fit better this way. Peter smiled as the tsums wiggled into the fluff, the closet opened and the rest of the swarm came out, covering the fluff up with their little bodies.
“This isn’t something I see ever.”
Tony managed.
Eventually the tsum blanket receded and in their wake stood a naked man. Jarvis offered one of Peter’s shirts which actually hung off him.
“Agent V you have been MIA for two months according to Shield's database.”
“I have, it's been terrible, shit really sticks to fur.”
Peter frowned and looked over at Tony. Was this really an agent? Tony only shrugged.
“I infiltrated Hydra as asked and got turned into a furry and then they tried stealing my tsums. Couldn’t let them take you guys from me, and wow what did they feed you? Carbs? You are so fat!”
Peter carefully moved behind Jarvis he’d made them fat.
“And why were you a big black rage monster?”
Agent V looked at Tony,
“They killed the tsum that copied me, I can give you the base location if you want. Wear masks though it’s been a while for the decay to set in.”
“How could anyone kill a tsum?”
Peter spoke before realizing he was trying to avoid being noticed. Oops. he edged away from the ironman armor he was taller than agent V why was he cowering around?
“I know, you kept them so happy and fat though. Iron tsum is a blimp and Cap tsum is a turtle. I love it. Tell you what any tsums that want to stay with the kid can. I got to report in, get checked out. Maybe a flea collar kind of itchy.”
Peter watched as the swarm discussed the notion of staying with Peter while Tony suited back up. Several of the tsums came over and rubbed themselves on Peter, it felt like a goodbye sort of gesture.
“Tsum tsum?”
“Yeah that's fair,”
Peter watched as four tsums two of each crawled into his bed. Hopping on his pillow and making a little divot in it.
“They would like to stay, but these two fatties want to visit.”
“I don’t mind! I’d like that.”
“Also you need to attend the tsum 101 class and probably gain some sort of clearance. I’ll get that set up for you, once I get my own shit done.”
Peter nodded offering his hand to the two Cap tsums, they climbed into it humming.
-
After that things settled back down, Peter was added to the avenger’s itinerary as back up, and given official status as the Tsum guardian. It was a silly title but Peter rather liked checking in on the tsums in the compound. The avengers let Peter know what was going down and either Hawkeye or ironman would call him to come into battle occasionally.
Usually only with local baddies which was fine, he was in charge of four tsums now and he couldn’t go over to Europe or moonlight to Australia for some issue or another. The tsums were very Wiley, he had to keep them in line, and the biggest fear? Keep them from harassing poor captain america. For his shield, the tsums were convinced it was the best sled and they seemed to be hatching plots to take it at every turn.
It was partly Peter’s fault after discussing the properties of said shield while he was checking over the tsums. He wasn’t going to fess up to that, it was one of the rules he’d learned in tsum care 101, rule number two never claim that you gave a tsum an idea. The first rule? Never feed a tsum junk food.
Agent V had mentioned them being just like tribbles, and that was the trouble.