Chapter Text
Being a Morty sucks. She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and looked at the ground, barely sparing a glance at the portal that just opened in front of her.
“Okay, le–urp–let's go,” the Rick next to her said. Her new Rick. His words were slurred and he was staggering. He's drunk, no doubt. That's not a good thing. She hesitantly started to walk towards that portal and follow Rick as he walked through it. The feeling of passing through that portal was familiar, an habit she's grown accustomed to despite herself, just like the garage she stepped into was a view she knew by heart. It looked exactly the same as her previous Rick's garage. They really are all the same.
Rick sat down on his chair and took a swing out of his flask. "S-So this is your new home or something, Mo–urp–ty.”
“Morticia,” she corrected him.
“What?”
“My name is Morticia.” She finally looked at him. He seemed to stare at her for a small moment before he simply shrugged.
“Okay, yeah sure. Makes sense. Your room is u–urp– up there if you wanna.” Morticia didn't budge. She looked around the room before her eyes fell on the door. “What are y-you waiting for ? You don't wanna see it ?”
She startled and looked up at Rick. “S-Sorry ! Sorry. I-I-I-I'll go.” She walked —almost ran— out of the door and up the stairs.
Rick stared at the still open door. “What's wrong with her ?” He took another sip then turned towards his work. “What–urp–ever.”
-----
Morticia opened the room's door. It was a bit... empty. There were a few poster here and there ; a poster of a famous anime, another few of a multitude of series and, others of women in bikinis. She sighed. At least she knew the last Morty reached teenage years before whatever happened that made him be replaced. There was a desk right under the window filled with notebooks and textbooks. She opened the wardrobe to discover yellow shirts and jeans. She groaned at the thought that she will have to wear only that. Did Mortys seriously all dress that way ? But other than that it was empty. It seemed like it lacked personality. As if this was an idea of what a Morty was. Or maybe he really was basic as hell. As she laid on the bed she mindlessly wondered if that Morty had died or if he was too annoying to keep. She knew many Mortys who were thrown away by their Rick simply because they asked too many questions, were too scared or they simply didn't want to go on adventures anymore. She turned around to lay on her stomach.
She will have to be careful.
-----
Morticia woke up to a door bursting open and her name being yelled. She stared at the man in front of her with wide eyes and yelped when she felt his hand grab her and practically drag her out of bed. She barely listened to his ranting as she struggled to not fall flat on her face. When she finally got her footing right, they were heading down the stairs.
“...that's why these plants are rea–urp–lly important, Morticia. So I reeeaaallly need to get them. So you can't fuck this up. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Rick.” She plastered on a visibly practised smile and nodded. He raised half of his eyebrow but didn't say anything. He let her go and grabbed his portal gun. “Flyer, heEEere we go,” he belched. He went inside the portal as she followed suit.
A heavy light blinded her when she stepped out of the portal. She blinked it away to reveal the scenery in front of her. The ground was purple with weird sort of trees growing on it. Morticia almost let out a gasp but decided against it ; she couldn't let anything show. She tried to not make any expressions but she guessed she failed since Rick broke the silence with : “C-Come on, Morticia. View's pretty and all that but we got plants to grab before the sun sets.”
“Huh? Oh yeah. Yep. T-The plants. Before the sun sets. Yuh uh. A-Absolutely.”
Rick stopped dead in his tracks, making Morticia almost run into his back, and turned to look at the kid. “You weren't listening. Were you?” instead of answering, Morticia looked away. “Of course you fucking weren't.” He sighed. ”I need to liquefy those plants. Grandpa (Grandpa ?, thought Morticia) needs them so he can sell them to those fuckers in Leier-54. They pay plenty for them. I-I had a bunch of those ready but I fucking broke the tubes, Morticia. And now I have to get more of them. Now hurry up, we–urp– we don't have all day.”
She quickened her pace to match his. The walk was silent, neither of them willing nor wanting to break it. When they got to the plants, Rick pulled a few out and shuffled them into a bag. After a few minutes, two small hands shook him.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“W-What is that?” asked the small voice behind him.
He sighed and turned around. “What is wha–” He looked up at the wide toothed beast. Its long claws sank into the floor. A gooey blue, which she was pretty sure was this universe's equivalent of Earth's liquid red, was striking against its pure white fur. Warm air escaped its mouth alongside a deep growl. “Fuck.”
In an instant, Rick stood up, grabbed Morticia by the back of her shirt's neck and ran away. He let her go and threw the bag at Morticia. She caught it, cringing at the few plants that fell off, but kept running as fast as she could, her heart seemingly beating faster at each growl the beast behind them let out. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Rick opened a portal on the ground and they both jumped in.
-----
Her feet hit the ground with a thump. The bag was promptly taken from her hands without a single ‘thank you’. She didn't know what she was expecting from a Rick but it would've been nice nonetheless. She turned to leave and go to her room when Rick called out to her, “Where are you going? Y-You don't wanna help me out with this ?”
Morticia turned to look at him. She narrowed her eyes, searching for any kind of indication of a joke or sarcasm but found none. The only thing she found is genuine confusion. Surprised, she slowly walked up to him and sat on the chair next to him. She was quickly given goggles —that messed up her hair when she would later take them off— and a clear instruction to not touch anything he didn't tell her to. She would fuck the experiment up or break what she had touched, according to Rick.
After what seemed like 30 minutes but was an hour and a half, the liquid was created and the tubes were filled. Rick placed them in a briefcase that put inside his ship. Morticia took off the goggles and stayed sat. Not knowing what to do, she fidgeted and stared at the floor. Should she just go ? Did he need her to stay ? She didn't want to push. "Uhm, Rick ?" He turned to look at her and hummed. "Uh— I— Well, uh Imeangoodnightbye," she stuttered before rushing out of the garage. That was so embarrassing. She groaned and hid her face in her hands. She sat on the couch and looked at the turned-off TV in front of her. She really had to stop being so scared of voicing her opinion or of asking anything. The worse that could happen is that she would be replaced with another Morty that wouldn't be as annoying. She did hear stories of Mortys getting killed by their Ricks, though. A shiver ran through her. This one wouldn't do that... right? She glanced at Rick's general direction. She wondered what happened to his Morty. She was sure his Morty had to be a boy —or at least called that way. Would it be bad to ask ? Would he get mad ? She didn't want him to get mad, not yet at least. She had a good time with him, maybe there will be more if she doesn't mess it up.
"You know it's turned off right ?" Rick's voice brought her back to reality. She nodded with embarrassment when she realised she had been looking at a black screen for the past 20 minutes. Rick grabbed the remote and threw it at her. "Here. Watch whatever. I have some tubes to sell." He opened his flask and took a swing. "D-Don't burn the house down, got it ?"
"How even would I-" She turned to him with a confused expression.
"I-I don't fucking -urp- know ! Just don't do it." He glared at her and left the room while grumbling something under his breath.
Morticia watched Rick go before turning back to the screen. She turned it on. The screen lit up to a weird game show : a... table person (?) was trying to answer questions. Morticia watched until it got a question wrong and got incinerated. She decided that changing the channel was probably for the best. She kept switching the channels, fascinated by the entirety of it. Every show she watched was weirder than the other, every ad was stranger than the previous one. A good numbers of channels later, she settled for a reality show whose contestants were from a species she had never seen but they acted exactly how earth contestants would. It creates a weird sense of familiarity. She made herself comfortable and, before long, her eyes closed.