Morty looked around the room. Well, it was technically a cabin but it was more like a studio in terms of the layout at least. It was empty except for a small cot and a medium-sized afghan blanket that was smushed in between the cot and wall. "Paradise" morty thought sarcastically. He only vaguely understood what he was doing here all rick would say when asked was that he wasn't really working out and the citadel was turning into a place where Morty's were no longer welcome. Which wasn't very reassuring to an already anxious mess of a kid. He had no idea why he was being kicked out of the only place that had felt like home to him in nearly a decade at this point.

He could feel the panic and fear bubbling up to the surface threatening to spill over and send him spiraling into a shaking tearful ball of nerves something he hadn't experienced for a little over three months since he arrived at the citadel. He still felt the familiar feelings of insecurity and terror but he had pushed them back by going on adventures with rick, exploring whatever planet the two where on or throwing himself headfirst into whatever had caught his interest at the moment even if it wasn't that particularly interesting when he dug past the surface level as long as it distracted him from his ever-growing list of anxieties and overwhelming thoughts, he was perfectly happy to do whatever task had been set before him.

He had even forced himself to become a part of the pog gaming craze that had spread through the morty population in the citadel. He had become one of the top players in the league going toe to toe with the former undisputed champion of the game lawyer morty even as he was bored to tears by the entire thing. The only positive of the game as far as he could see was how much cash he was raking in by playing professionally or as professional as a morty tournament could get. He had more money than he knew what to do with. He kept it in his backpack stuffed in a pink pencil case (shut up it was the first one he saw and he never thought these things through) he always said he would spend it on something grand and exotic like one of those gorgeous sex robots that the Morty's at the daycare whispered about in awed and hushed tones. The legends say that there was a whole factory dedicated to making them they were scattered all across the galaxy from pawnshops to specialty stores and were the ultimate most luxurious dolls you could dream of. A few Mortys claimed that they had gotten the rare pleasure of experiencing one but they were generally dismissed as liars seeing as they had no actual evidence to back up their claim. But well there was no chance of that happening now him stuck on a deserted planet in the middle of nowhere. He regretted not doing anything with his riches while he had the chance. He could've given the money to a homeless morty or donated it to one of the numerous charities political ricks had put in place to earn brownie points with the mortys or the few bleeding-heart ricks that cared for their Mortys to get their vote when election time rolled around. He sighed to himself quietly well there's nothing he could do about it now.

He looked at his pitiful collection of stuff he had packed haphazardly in a rush to get back to the spaceship where rick was waiting impatiently for him to finish packing so they could go. If he had known that he would never be coming back then he would've grabbed everything he owned and packed them with care to hell with Rick's precious time he could wait an extra ten minutes for him to grab everything he owned. He still ranted over how long he took to pack whining about how he had a schedule to keep, calling him a Princess that needed absolutely everything in the apartment before he could leave and that when he had to go on a trip he always packed light only the bare necessities he couldn't live without even though morty knew for a fact that every time he had prior warning the two were going to be on an adventure that would last more than three days he would stock up on weapons, food and any supplies he thought they would need not to mention the five or six inventions he would stow away only to pull them out at the very last minute when there was no other option leaving morty constantly second-guessing himself over whether or not he actually had a good memory and observation skills like everyone on earth said he did.

"Motherfucker couldn't have given me an extra few minutes to pack even though he KNEW where I was going and that I would be gone long enough to not even recognize my stuff even if I came back bastard." He shook his head angrily "enough of him like it or not this is my life now and I'm gonna make the best of it if only to show everyone that says I can't do anything on my own." Right back to business unpacking and setting up his new home as much as he could with his meager possessions. He quickly started to sort out the pile of junk he had crammed in his bag.

For electronics he had his phone, two sets of headphones blue tooth and a corded one for when the blue tooth one was charging with chargers for each one, and his switch that he had bought (way overpriced he later found out) from salesman rick that had hundreds of games downloaded so he quote "would give his rick a rest from his natural morty annoyingness and pacify him when they had an adventure dry spell." Morty thought that was a bit racist? Ageist? Personist? Was that a word? I don't know. Anyway, it was some type of -ist even if he didn't know exactly what kind.

But he did appreciate the gift even if he did buy it for himself out of spite after some mortys had teased him for having so much cash and yet never spending it. They had then mocked him for buying from salesman rick and the color of the joy-cons which were the default plain black and even more proof he was cheap and an idiot to boot. He should've learned from Brad and Frank palicky that you could never win against asshole they'll just find something else to pick on you for. He didn't know why he thought these mortys would be any different after all they were just different versions of himself and he already knew he could be an asshole sometimes so why would they be any different. Well to be fair they were a lot nicer then his past bullies at least most of them were biker and no mercy morty still scared him (and maybe made him wet himself while sleeping once not that anyone would find out he'll take that secret to his grave)

Punk morty used to scare him too until he was unexpectedly face to face with the guy in a high stakes shootout pog tournament which was one of the most stressful moments in his short stay at the citadel top five easy. But after an hour of playing with someone, the ice slowly starts to break till you get a good idea of what kind of person you're dealing with. And it turned out punk morty wasn't that bad of a guy after all. He wasn't like greater morty who made his section of the table bigger so he could get the most pogs and was the reason why the tables now had to have tape on them to clearly mark each players spots. He wasn't like boot camp morty that would get overly aggressive whenever he felt someone was cheating and was the one who made referees a requirement at all games that had any reward greater than bragging rights or a half-melted tootsie roll that hippie morty found in his pocket. He wasn't even like fawn morty who was THE most annoying player he had ever had the displeasure of competing with. There was nothing technically wrong with the guy? Fawn? Pet? Yeah sometimes it got confusing with the sheer number of mortys and all the different dimensions that they came from. But whatever his species he was the type that pushed all of mortys buttons.

He was ditzy that was the first thing you noticed about him he could never remember which pogs were his or even if he brought any that day which wasn't that bad on his own after all a lot of mortys couldn't even keep track of a Jerrybourie ticket that made sure they went home with the right Jerry. But the solution to that problem was to mark the damn things with stickers or drawings or hell even a piece of tape on the back of course to not ruin the sometimes very intricate and beautiful designs some of the more artsy mortys had decorated on the front. They looked almost like a work of art almost but not quite after all they still were just pogs little circles of cardboard or plastic that could easily be substituted with literal trash if there was no actual ones available. But being forgetful wasn't the only thing that morty disliked about fawn morty no if it was just that then he could forgive him it really wasn't a big deal only held everyone up at the end of the game and after a long while of sitting down with adrenaline pumping through his veins for most of it he was grateful for the opportunity to stretch and walk around the arena never straying too far from the table of course but just far enough to where he could still hear the murmurings of the referee, fawn morty and whoever else was there trying to speed up the process in a vain attempt to get to the betting booth and collect their winnings in case their rick showed up to drag them away therefore losing their prize they had just spent hours earning.

Nope what really ticked morty off about the doe-eyed sidekick was how cute he was. He just was so nauseatingly adorable he swore the air was coated in sugar whenever he made his presence known. He even cheated too all he had to do was flash those big puppy dog eyes at a particularly weak-willed or even a morty that had gone just a little too long without affection and bam he had stolen their pogs right from under their noses.

That was why he was permanently on mortys shit list which sounds more dramatic than it is. It was really more like a people I really really hate and am hoping karma will come and kick their ass list. But the one thing he could say about fawn morty was that it at least let him and punk morty bond kind of not over their shared dislike of him punk morty actually didn't see anything wrong with him and thought he was adorable and I was overreacting to what was at most a slight annoyance which ok yah maybe it was but damnit wasn't he allowed to be a bit petty sometimes.

Punk morty was pretty chill though he calmed me down somehow and for awhile after that we just talked and chilled out till fawn morty remembered he didn't even bring any pogs in the first place he still got some leftover ones that blue shirt morty just happened to have on him. But after talking to punk morty it bothered him just a bit less then it usually did just a bit though. Since that day though him and punk morty did start to hang around more often he calmed him down whenever he was too worked up about something and he listened to his rants about President morty and the various ways ricks would fuck with mortys just because. They talked about anything that came to mind from the numerous planets and dimensions they had visited morty focusing more on the possibilities of whatever he had seen and the different ways they could be retooled and shaped into something fantastical and new. Punk morty on the other hand talked more about all the different creatures and new environments he had discovered. Morty discovered a whole new genre of music through him. It was punk of course but he was surprised to find out that it wasn't aggressive and mean like he originally thought on the contrary he found while it was hard on the surface once you actually listened it was actually really peaceful and gentle just with a rough edge to it.

He smiled to himself quietly he missed punk morty he was a good guy and probably the person he trusted most in his life. And now he would never see him again. The thought made his heart wretch. He quickly shoved it aside for now he wanted to stave off the eventual breakdown he knew was coming for as long as he could till it couldn't be held back anymore. He knew the longer he put it off the worse it would be and he would be an absolute mess the entire time but that was a problem for future morty and he had enough on his plate as it was so he was going to have to deal with it when the dam burst which he guessed would be pretty soon with no adventures or exploring or even pogs to distract him from his own mind.

He shut his eyes tightly trying to keep himself under control for a little while longer. When he opened them he focused intensely on the only things he had in this world that could help him gain a little peace from his never-ending thoughts fueled by fear and self-loathing. Moving over the electronics pile and the switch that opened up his feelings of homesickness and his life in the citadel he instead focused on the other piles of stuff he had brought with him. There were his clothes pile which was composed of a light blue hoodie, a yellow sweater that he had borrowed years ago from an old roommate at the orphanage and had purposely never returned because it was so soft, warm, perfect for winter and in his favorite color. It was a match made in heaven to him and he wasn't going to just ignore what was obviously a gift from whoever was looking out for him maybe a grandma or someone like that he didn't know. He also had three plain yellow t-shirts which he was apparently the standard morty uniform in most dimensions which wasn't as big of a deal as it should've been to him. Personally he really didn't care what the ricks and morty's of other dimensions wore as long as they were clean and didn't look like they just rolled out of a dumpster he was pretty apathetic to the clothing choices of others maybe a more fashion inclined morty would have more of a reaction to the whole ordeal but he didn't see the point of wasting that much energy on something so pointless then again he did spend far too much time in dimly lit arenas playing pogs with other versions of himself to judge anyone on what they did in their free time so he didn't have much room to talk. He also had four pairs of the same pants along with two pairs of underwear and some socks scrunched in all of them mismatched and unfolded but they were an even number at least. It was a small thing of course I mean I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere without even knowing what planet I'm on I have bigger problems than an extra sock that doesn't have a partner but it was a small comfort to him for some reason. He also grabbed an extra pair of Adidas that had been sitting in his closet at the orphanage for years that he had impulsively brought with him when he left earth and he had for the same unexplainable reason grabbed them when he was packing for what he now knew was a forever never going back trip away from the first place he thought of as home since he was seven.

That thought made his eyes start to burn a bit so he hurriedly shoved it aside and since he had finished going through his clothes pile he went on to the next one which was the remains of his book collection. He smirked as he thought of how stupid he would look if he had brought his movie collection too they would be absolutely useless here unless he completely destroyed them for scrapped parts. Maybe he could've used the back of the disks as reflectors to blind an animal to make it easier to hunt? On second thought maybe he wouldn't look so stupid after all. Then again there was no one else here to look stupid in front of or even be seen at all. "Wait stop we aren't going down that road. Just breathe in and out. Ok that's better put it out of your mind now what else do we have here?"

He looked at his books again only four not much but it's better than nothing. They were picked at random his hands fumbling them as he was racing to get done and get the hell back in the ship before rick got too pissed and either left without him or came up there and yanked morty out of the house not caring if he was done or not. When rick decided he was done then he was done. For a rushed, frenzied panic in trying to get everything together and without even a glance at what he had chosen for the trip he didn't do that bad of a job. He of course had his notebook on him and was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the books he had grabbed was actually a new blank notebook that he had bought about a week before being relocated to a cabin in an unknown to him at least environment.

Hell he might not even be in the same dimension he was in yesterday you never knew with rick one moment he could be talking to you normal or as normal as he was while shit-faced drunk the next he was holding a knife to your throat demanding to know if you were a simulation then the next morning it was like it had never happened the only evidence being a severely hungover rick and a mildly traumatized morty. That was a fun night. It was even better dealing with the resulting anxieties and new fears he gained because of it. Those at least he dealt with more than his usual brand of issues considering it was a completely unexpected and somewhat immediate threat. He spent some time to himself thinking the situation over trying to rationalize it. After all rick was involved in a lot of crazy shit and morty had only seen a glimpse of what he dealt with and besides rick had told him about the zigerion scammers earlier that night and the absolute mind-fuck he had been subjected to nearly all day so it was completely understandable that he would be more than a little bit paranoid after the day he's had.

But he couldn't talk his subconscious out of being unaffected by the event. He tried to deal with the problem on his own trying to convince himself that it really wasn't that bad and it was only a few bad nights every once in a while. But eventually after two weeks straight of bad nights filled with uneasy sleep along with waking up a million times during the night soaked in sweat and unable to remember exactly what he was dreaming about he finally broke down asked around the morty daycare about something to help him sleep better. As it turned out this was a common problem among mortys and luckily was an easy fix. They were called carhyniosul berries but ricks and by extension mortys called them stun berries because they were some pretty powerful stuff and was the strongest sleeping thing mortys were legally allowed to have other than being injected with aesthetics and with all the alien and alternate universes medicine the ricks had access to and treated like candy most mortys unless it was absolutely dire and they were desperate for sleep wouldn't go near any medical rick or surgeon ricks clinic and only would go to the citadel hospital if their rick forced them to go most of them kicking and screaming on the way in.

In fact the issue was so common that the hospital now had a special spray that would spray every morty that came in unless they were at what they felt was an acceptable level of calm which meant that 95% of mortys that went in the hospital had been drugged the moment they walked in the door. Even the ones that weren't kicking and screaming or having a panic attack at the thought of being completely at a random ricks mercy with the added fear of not even being awake for the entire journey were sprayed because as a morty it seemed that their anxiety levels by law were always cranked up to at least an eight even if they weren't being forced into a dangerous or nerve-wracking situation. So it did take morty another week of no sleep before he worked up the courage to drag himself to surgeon ricks clinic to get a bottle of stun berries for himself because the punishment for a morty being caught with unprescribed drugs was four years of morty school and a session with the council of ricks where they would unceremoniously roast the fuck out of the poor morty destroying whatever confidence he might have had before that. If you didn't want to go to morty school they would allow you to exchange it for an extra four roasting sessions with the council. No morty ever took them up on the offer no one was that much of a sadist.

The appointment with surgeon rick wasn't as bad as it could've been but it was still massively uncomfortable with all the questions, the scanning he had to sit through to make sure he wasn't an addict or dealer which somehow both had him questioning exactly what kind of mortys were out there and how they ended up like that and not being surprised at all because hey anything possible especially with how downhill the morty population was going due to president morty and in general the attitude of nearly all of the ricks. But eventually he got his berries in a big bottle crammed as full as it could without the berries bursting. It put a huge dent in his wallet but it was worth it to have a good nights sleep after nearly a month of looking and feeling like infected morty who he swore was the living dead. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw he still had two big bottles of the stuff as long as you passed the inspection you could have as many bottles as you wanted of the stuff they didn't care about the actual danger of the drugs they had the technology to stop any overdoses that could occur because of them. They just wanted to make sure you weren't abusing them or selling them other then that you were golden as far as the ricks were concerned.

Morty didn't really get their logic but whatever it had saved his ass today and that was all that mattered. He set the bottles down by his books which he was pleased to discover other than his two notebooks were the complete collection of grims fairytales which was just under 750 pages and would last him quite awhile and ironically enough hatchet which nearly made the kid burst out in hysterical laughter it was like rick had somehow chosen the book it was perfect.

His only other possessions where a small switchblade that he had forgotten was even in there having stolen it from frank as petty revenge nearly six months ago which had him nearly falling back into his memories before stopping himself yet again not wanting to fall into the same trap yet again. He also had two black hair ties he had no idea what they were doing in there but he could probably find a use for them later and a few pens, two blue, one bright green, a red and yellow pair of pencils and a multicolored pen along with two erasers completing his little coloring set. And that was it everything he owned well he still had his pencil box full of money and his pogs set that for the moment was only useful as tinder for the campfire he would surely have to learn to build sometime. He decided to leave his money alone it wouldn't do him good to be poor if he ever got out of here. He pushed everything to the side for now saving the rest for tomorrow and opened one of the bottles the one that was already open and was still a third full he silently cheered to himself at least he hadn't completely failed at packing. After he swallowed the bitter thing wishing he at least had some water or something to make the taste not as strong he climbed into the cot and curled up in what was actually a fleece blanket not sure how he missed that but he was happy about the warm and soft gift anyway. He read some of hatchet as he waited for the berries to kick in and soon drifted into a restful dreamless slumber ending his stressful whirlwind of a day.

AUTHORS NOTE: ok so I'm so sorry for being gone for two months. Burnout is a bitch and I'm a lazy sack of shit so yah things haven't been going too good. But I hope I made up for that with this extra-long chapter wanted to add a bit more backstory and create some world building for the citadel because we don't get to see it that often in the show. Also I learned way more about pogs than I have ever wanted to know about. And ricks are incredibly impatient especially when it comes to mortys no idea if there's evidence for it in the show but it fits really well with them. Mortys stun berries are actually based off of real sleeping drugs specifically quetiapine which I found out while researching is also an antipsychotic TIL. They're also pretty damn strong too so yah the ricks aren't being too crazy with their laws everything else in regards to hospitals, the punishments, and how freely they're giving them out oh yah usual rick shenanigans but yeah in regards to the scanners and questions they're on the ball and are treating it seriously probably more seriously than US healthcare does yay for sci-fi tech and ricks that don't want their mortys to die. In case it wasn't clear yes this mortys rick cares about him in a rick way which isn't the best but he still cares. He might come back I'm not really sure yet I honestly have no idea where this story is going but morty won't be going back to the citadel if he spent any longer in there he would be soul wiped no question he's too much of a threat to the council and the citadels power structure if he actually got the chance to do something then he would break all the ideas of what a morty is because this morty doesn't need a rick but he won't be like rick either a lone wolf if you don't count bird person or squanchy. He might find a group of his own like ricks group or team up with some other mortys but he's not like rick for sure. If you like this please comment I need the encouragement special thanks to my followers and anyone who likes this.