As usual, the living room was a complete mess, except for the corner that held a gigantic sofa and a TV on the opposite wall. The whole family was sitting somehwere on or in front of the sofa and was mostly lazing about, bored and demotivated. Ty had allowed Alex to use one side of their headphones, Mini was quietly singing despite usually being self conscious about it, Cookie had stopped making suggestive comments about Fanta and Mary cuddling, Shawm had given in to Qween's wish of playing rock-paper-scissors, Sofi was lying upside down with her legs against the back of the couch, Magic was looking at her phone without doing anything and Dylan had fallen asleep.

They definitely had to do something about this.

"I'm bored," Sofi complained and there was an answering chorus of "Me too" that followed.

Suddenly, something fell from the ceiling - directly onto the couch table in front of them. Ten heads shot in the same direction and one shot up.

"Huh? What's up?" Dylan asked, blinking.

"The ceiling," Mary said. "And it just threw this at us." She gestured at the video lying on the table.

"What is it?" Mini asked, interrupting their song, still blushing slightly due to realizing they had been singing aloud in the first place.

"A video! Duh!" Cookie said and Shawm groaned.

Getting up from her upside down position, Sofi picked up the video to see what it said.

"It says-"

But she didn't get the chance to read it as Cookie stole it from her grasp.

"Let me see!" she shouted and somewhere in the background they could hear a "ba-dumm-tss" sound.

"Aye, kid, give it back!"

"It's the house's so it belongs to me, too," Cookie argued and everyone gave her a meaningful look.

"The house hates you," Ty said and Alex nodded along, losing his side of the headphones. Their attention was on the video by now anyway.

"Also, C, the video doesn't belong to the house," Shawm said, having actually managed to read the words on its side while Cookie had been holding it. "It's Fanta's, see?"

Ignoring the second "ba-dumm-tss", a slightly confused Fanta took the video.

"Really? I don't remember having a- Oh! I do!"

"So what's on it then?" Mary asked leaning onto Fanta who laughed and got up to turn on the video.

"I didn't know the house turned them into videos? But cool! Let's just watch it!"

"Yay! Family movie time!" Qween and Sofi shouted at the same time.

"Alriiiight," Magic said, finally putting away her phone. "I don't have anything better to do anyway. Turn it on, daddy~"

"STOP THAT!" Fanta shouted.

"It's 'turn me on', Magic," Cookie corrected.

"GUYS! Let's just watch, okay?"

Everyone got comfortable again and the video started. At first they saw a plain black background with the words "The Bats In Their Natural Habitat - A documentary by Fanta" in bold white letters showing.

"What the fuck?"

"Language!"

"Shut up, dad."

"Look, it's starting!"

"Is this working?" said Fanta from behind the camera, waving a hand in front of the lens. Apparently satisfied, the hand retreated and the camera shakily focused on a door.

"Is that our house?" Mini asked.

"Probably. You never know with the house though." Mary said.

"The Bat house - situated in an inter-dimensional niche in the space-time continuum and moving to the likes of its inhabitants, the house is the perfect space of living for the highly individual and complex creatures that reside within it."

"What the fuck, dad."

"Language."

"Better take a look at the language you're using. What are you even talking about."

The camera moved, through the now open front door and into the large living room space. "And here we see what could be called the main place for common interaction between the different species - Hi Dyl - sorry, can I just... -" The camera moved past a very confused Dylan, closer to where they were sitting in the present time.

"I think I remember this now," Dylan said. "I'd been wondering what you were doing outside for so long after you had ran out the door suddenly."

Fanta laughed awkwardly. "Yeah... The camera settings took me some time to work out..."

"Tech? What is that?"

"Here we can see one of the symbiotic relationships in the Bat house, the so-called 'Twinus Tylexus'. Alex and Ty were sitting on the couch. Alex was braiding Ty's hair and both were watching some kind of horror movie. "Hey Batdad-"

"Many of the species in this very unique living space seem to have accepted each others as something of a family member."

"Nah," Shawm said. "Batfamily. I don't see it."

"Uh, what's with the camera?" Ty asked. "Just, you know, stuff," Fanta explained in detail. "What kind of stuff?" Alex wanted to know, despite Fanta's amazing explanation. The camera started zooming in and out. "Darn it, I can't figure this out- huh?" Suddenly all they could see was the ground behind Fanta's feet. "Oh, nothing, nothing!"

"Nothing. Huh. Interesting how we're watching nothing right now."

"Maaars!"

The camera was turned correctly again, now facing the TV with the horror movie. "Batdad, we can't see anything," Ty complained, but the camera didn't budge.
"Similiar to some of the other species, these symbiotic ones have developed a high affinity towards dark and thrilling movies. It would not be far off to assume that they are closely related to the homo sapiens."

"Wow," Mini deadpanned.

"Well, I'm not wrong!"

The camera finally moved on from the TV, swinging around the room and coming to a halt facing one of its corners. There, on the ground and in deep concentration was Mary. "Another very curious creature would be the 'Mars Marys'. Next to its like towards horror stories and cryptic messages, it also shows a great affinity towards me-"

"Still straight, Fanta," Mary interrupted and kept writing in the notebook she had on her lap.

"I hate you for all the "still straight" jokes, Marry," Cookie said.

"Well-"

"And the being which is commonly referred to simply as 'Mary' also enjoys collecting information on other species ." Mary shook her head and closed the notebook, looking up at the camera for the first time. The camera moved abruptly and Fanta's hold on it seemed to change.

"Wait, I know this moment. I thought you were-"

"Are you taking a picture of me?" Mary asked, looking past the camera, presumably directly at Fanta. "Uh, yeah. Taking a picture. That's- yeah. I mean- I was going to. But if you don't want to..."

"Dad! You lied to Mary!" Qween shouted shocked.

"I didn't lie, I just-"

"You did! Batdad, I am very disappointed!" Sofi chided.

"Eh," Mary said and shrugged. "I'm okay with it. This is funny."

"Let's take a selfie." Mary suggested and the camera turned around so there were Mary and Fanta on the screen next to each other. Mary smiled at the camera, Fanta tried to, but failed miserably in a very awkward way. The video seemed to cut off and jump to another picture.

"You stopped the recording when you thought you were taking a photo," Fanta complained to Mary, who rolled her eyes.

"If you had told me what you were really doing..."

"If you two told us what you were really doing all night-"

"Kid, NO! Stop that."

"Ooooh, Fanty~ Are you not telling us something."

"You guys are impossible."

They could see the kitchen this time. The counter was still the old one, from before someone had set it on fire.
"One thing that all species have in common, is - of course - the requirement for certain kinds of food. However, some of them do have certain favours- Sofi, be careful! The bowl!" A loud crash rang through the room and the camera was set on the counter. In the background they could hear Sofi apologizing and them both cleaning up and leaving the room.

"It's just one more bowl. Not like it makes a difference. We've destroyed more important things..."

Then Mini came in, apparently not noticing the camera. She was making herself something to eat while humming quietly. Suddenly she took a quick look around and then started singing quietly.

Those who had heard her sing before began grinning and shouting.

"See? We told you you could sing!"

The rest stared at the TV and everyone began to clap. Mini blushed again and quietly mumbled "My singing's not that good..."

Finishing her sandwich, Mini left the kitchen just before Sofi and Fanta came back. "Hey Batdad," Sofi said and jumped up onto the counter like she had done so a thousand times before - which she probably had. "Can I have a cookie?"

"See? Everyone wants me!" Cookie said triumphantly.

Shawm rolled her eyes.

"Not now, Sofi, you should eat some proper food first," Fanta replied.
"I bet Batmom would allow it!" Sofi countered, crossing her arms. "Oh, Mr. Carrot wants a cookie, too, by the way!"

Fanta and Shawm shared a meaniful look.

"No cookies before lunch."
Just then Fanta seemed to remember  the camera that was, after all, still recording and lying on the countertop. Fanta picked it up when Sofi wasn't looking. "Now go play or something, I have work to do," Fanta ordered and gently nudged Sofi out of the kitchen. The screen went black for a couple seconds before showing a new scene.

"Certain situations in he Bat habitat work after the competitive exlusion principle," Fanta said from behind the camera, seemingly hiding behind the door frame. The camera was recording Qween, Cookie and Magic, who were all trying to sit in the most comfortable arm chair in Shawm's room to play a video game.

"Do you spy on us often, Fant?" Magic asked, winking at her.

Fanta blushed.

"I wasn't spying! I was just... collection material for my project! Shawm and her bat-cameras are what you should be looking out for!"

"Hey!"

"Where one species gains the upper hand-" Magic shoved Qween from the chair and grinned triumphantly. "-another one has to give way. However-" Cookie jumped on top of Magic, wrestling with her until Magic was on the ground with Qween, both pouting. "There may be additional factors that lead to both species abandoning their territory."

"Could you stop calling us "species"?" Dylan asked. "It's weird."

"You're weird."

"Yeah, but that's not the point-"

"None of this matters though, when the territory is off-limits to begin with. Worst case scenario - all species are being chased from their preferred space..." Fanta whispered and the camera slowly retreated from the door. In the distance they could hear a door banging open and Shawm shouting. "This is MY ROOM!"

"Don't mess with Batmom," said everyone - except for Shawm and Cookie.

Shawm nodded and Cookie just wiggled her eyebrows at her which made everyone roll their eyes.

The camera kept moving down the hallway and was suddenly knocked to the ground where it skidded across the floor and stopped on its left side. On the screen they could see Fanta on the ground with Magic sprawled on top of her.
"Hi Fantalicious!" she shouted. "How are you?"

"Great," Fanta gasped. "Get off me."
Magic stubbornly shook her head. Just then some of the others arrived.
"We heard the crash, what happened?" Qween asked, but then she saw Fanta and Magic and apparently decided to like the idea. "Oh! I want in!" she shouted and threw herself onto the pile.
"No!" Fanta shouted while the others laughed.

"I hadn't even noticed the camera that time," Qween admitted.

"We really need to pay more attention to what Fanta secretly does," Mini said.

"Ah, psh, nah. I'm harmless."

Mary nodded at that.

"Wait, no, I mean-"

"No way am I letting you have a cuddle pile without me!" Cookie declared, also joining.
Fanta groaned and glared at Shawm as though daring her to repeat the others' actions.
Shawm shook her head and left.

"I am above these things," Shawm explained easily.

"Psh."

"Don't psh me, Fant."

"And this," Fanta said into the still recording camera that the others hadn't noticed. "Is a wonderful example of the Bats' hunting strategy."
She slowly reached for the camera. Before she shut it off, they could hear more voices from the hallway.
"Me too!" Sofi shouted.
"Come on twinny, let's join!"
"Dylan, come on!"
"Okay."
"Wait for me!"
And Mary.
"Guys, I think you're suffocating Fanta..."
The screen went black again.

"How the fuck did no one ever notice the fricking camera?!" Cookie shouted.

Dylan shrugged. "It was only once and pretty short. And we did notice the camera, like Ty and Alex did in the beginning. Just not all the time."

Fanta started laughing.

"Yeah. Only once... haha... sure! There's not - I don't know - a second... third... part..."

Some of the brightened up while others groaned.

"There's more?" Sofi asked.

"Well-"

Another video fell from the ceiling and everyone stared at it.

...

"I'LL GET POPCORN THIS TIME!"