Chapter Text
It was pouring on Inanimate island. The rain beat heavy against the outside walls and windows of Hotel OJ, letting every resident there know how angry the weather seemed today. On the outskirts of the island, the surrounding seas were wild, and winding. The ocean being forever unforgiving for any ship or vessel that may be on the waters.
This includes a small raft, that had long since overturned, and washed up on the shores of Inanimate island. Along with this ruined raft, was an object. Weak, and small, and shivering, as they blurred in and out of consciousness, stumbling towards the only building visible, a beacon of light in the dark, dreary and scary weather. This small object made their way, after several minutes of the rain pouring down on them, to the front doors of the tall, tall building.
They weakly hit themselves against the door, knocking the best way they could as they didn’t really have arms. They desperately needed to get out of the rain, this weather. They had been nearly taken out at sea by the storm, but they were stubborn. They refused to be this weak. Eventually, the door to the building opened, and the small object felt their legs buckle, falling into the arms of the object who had answered. They were safe now-- at least, surely they’d be out of this weather now. The rest of the evening was a blur, being passed around between a few objects, carried through several different rooms, none that they could really make out through their exhausted haze. Maybe they'd feel better if they got some rest. Yeah. That sounded nice.
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MePhone and OJ sat on the couch with a few others. It was one of the hotel's monthly 'movie nights' where any interested resident would vote on a movie to watch, and they'd hold a small viewing party. This time was more crowded than usual, considering the very poor weather outside, and most objects just being here to block out the noise of the intense storm, and honestly as crowded as it was, he was just glad he and OJ were able to get a spot on the couch. Though the movie was loud to combat the storm noise, MePhone couldn't help but hear a noise that he knew wasn't from the movie-- having seen the chosen movie of this month several times, and though he tried to ignore it, it kept happening. It almost sounded like knocking, like someone was outside, and at the door to the hotel. It was clear other objects started hearing it too, their gazes moving towards the door, rather than the TV.
"Hey, can you go check the door?"
"Yeah, fine," MePhone spoke quietly, to not be heard over the movie by others, before he got up, quickly stepping out of the way of anyone's view. He didn't even think about the rain as he opened the door, but that wasn't an immediate concern either, when a small, gray-ish blue cup fell into his arms the moment the door opened. MePhone let out a panicked noise, certainly not having expected this as he stumbled back, letting go of them by accident, as they fell to the floor completely now. At this point, the movie was paused, and all eyes were on him, and this cup, who was trembling, and soaked.
"Uh-- um, help?" MePhone said, almost awkwardly, desperately looking over at the other objects for assistance with… whatever this was. OJ immediately sprung into action, getting up and walking over, this was his hotel after all. The cup's eyes were open, but their gaze was far away, and unfocused. Their breathing was heavy, too. As OJ called out to them to try to get their attention, nothing came out of them. After about a minute or two of this, he decided this was going nowhere, and he picked the cup up as carefully as possible, heading towards the hotel infirmary. This was going to be a weird night, wasn't it.
TestTube, being the best shot for a possible medic, or at least an object who knows how to deal with sick, or hurt objects, was called down from her room to the infirmary to check this out herself. As OJ brought the cup into the infirmary, they seemed to fall asleep in his arms, further sinking into the comfort of the bed once placed down.
"Um… okay, so this is new… this is weird…" OJ was pacing, quietly speaking to himself as MePhone peeked into the room.
"Uh… I asked around, nobody who saw them knows who this is…"
"How did they even get here in this weather? No wonder they're soaked." OJ stopped pacing, glancing over to the cup, whose breathing was even, and slow, though despite them being asleep, they still seemed to tremble.
"This is weird, right?"
"Yeah, um… I don't actually know what we're going to do about this… I guess we just wait for TestTube to check up on them and for them to wake up… Right?"
"Yeah, I mean I think that's all we can really do about this." MePhone shrugged, glancing away as OJ just worriedly stared at the new, sudden addition to his hotel's infirmary. It was silent in the room for a bit, before both OJ and MePhone jolted, the door slamming open.
"Ah! Sorry, I just, uh.. yeah! I'm here to check up on… this object?" TestTube raised an eyebrow, wasting no time as she stepped into the room, over to the side of the bed.
"Yeah, them,"
"When did they show up? What happened?"
"Um, they just showed up at the door during the middle of the movie," MePhone shrugged again.
“Weird.” TestTube muttered, checking the object's pulse, and state. “They just seem exhausted. We should really dry them off, they aren’t going to stop shivering until we do that, one of you go grab some towels, please?”
“Yeah, okay,” MePhone offered, before stepping out, heading to the ‘spa room’ of the hotel. If towels were anywhere, it was probably that room.
As MePhone left the room, that left OJ and TestTube.
“What are we going to do with them?”
“Phrasing it like that sounds ominous… Um, I guess we see where they came from and get them back there when they recover?” OJ shrugged.
“Hm. Right, seems fair enough.” TestTube would just nod, taking a towel from MePhone, as he returned to the room. She carefully used it to dry off the cup, noticing as she tossed the towel away for someone else to take out of the room, that the shivering lessened.
“Yeah I think that helped. Should someone stay in here in case they wake up?”
“Um, well I gotta go call off the rest of movie night, and I’m not sure about MePhone, but…”
“Um… Yeah, I mean if I have to,” MePhone shuffled nervously where he stood.
“Great! I’ll be off then. Let me know if anything happens.” TestTube gives a thumbs-up, before ducking out of the infirmary. That was weird. MePhone just sighed, standing himself up against one of the room's walls to wait.
“I’ll come back to keep you company in just a bit, okay?” OJ smiled softly towards MePhone, before stepping over to the door.
“Yeah, okay,” MePhone offered a smile back.
…
And so the night went on, the storm kept raging outside, and the cup remained very much asleep. It wasn’t until much later-- The next afternoon, when MePhone was absolutely bored out of his mind, waiting for something to happen, that the cup jolted awake with a scream.
“AAAAA!” They shouted, sitting up, and heaving in air. MePhone jolted at this, letting out a small yelp of his own, caught very much off guard by this. The two immediately made eye-contact, before MePhone glanced away, but still nervously looking in their direction;
“Um, hello? Are you… Okay?” MePhone slightly trailed off, as the cup just stared at him with a curious look. MePhone was about to say something else, but both him, and the cup jolted as the door slammed open;
“I heard yelling! What happened?” OJ stepped in, showing his skill at having the world's worst timing.
“Oh-- sorry, uh, hello?” OJ immediately noticed the cup being awake now. They still didn’t say anything, almost seeming… timid. They curled up a bit on themselves, looking between the two.
“Can you speak?” OJ asked, using a soft tone as to not startle, or alarm the smaller object.
The shorter cup glanced away, seeming to think about that for a moment, before opening their mouth;
“Um… yeah,” They kind of croaked out, immediately blinking harshly at the sound of their own voice, shocked at how hoarse it was. They attempted to clear their throat, but that did little to help.
“Ah, um, here, I’ll go get you some water,” OJ quickly ran back out of the room, leaving MePhone and the cup alone, the air once again immediately awkward, neither of them talking. MePhone never found himself that fond of children, and well, this certainly wasn’t an exception, especially since this one had passed out in his arms, and ruined movie night… Well, no. It was stupid to hold that against an object who clearly needed assistance. He shook the selfish thought off, thankful when OJ returned, helping the cup, which seemed to be an armless object, get some water.
“Um… thank you,” The cup stared only at the sheets on the bed they were sitting on, kind of shuffling in their place, uncurling from themselves a bit.
“Okay, well, if you remember, can you tell us how you got here? You were in… not great condition when you stumbled in,”
They just shuffled a bit more, clearly anxious, before meekly admitting;
“I was kicked out, so I ran away…” They looked ashamed of admitting that.
“Ran away from where? How… How did you even get on this island?” OJ asked, with clear concern in his tone.
“I took a boat, I- I didn’t want to be there anymore if they didn’t want me, I thought I’d live on the seas and become a pirate or something but…” The shorter cup sniffled, a big frown on their face. This was definitely a child.
“Hey, it’s alright, you’re um… Safe now, you’re going to be safe. You don’t need to talk about it if you can’t.” OJ assured.
“The pirate life isn’t for everyone anyways, don’t worry about it,” MePhone joked, trying to lighten up the mood, a bit too nervous himself to be around an emotional child. This seemed to work well enough, as the cup let out a half-hearted giggle at this.
“Um, where am I, anyways?” the cup raised an eyebrow, glancing around the room.
“You’re at Hotel OJ.” OJ grinned, putting his hands to his hips, as if he were proud of being able to announce it-- which he was, but that wasn’t the point. The cup’s expression seemed to shift into focus, staying like this for a few seconds, before the child let out a gasp;
“Oh my gosh, like THE Hotel OJ?”
“Uh… Yeah?” OJ’s confident demeanor fell a bit, caught off guard that this child seemed to actually recognize the location.
“Oh!!! Oh! That’s so cool!” The child’s face lit up immediately with excitement, both OJ and MePhone just being left confused as the child continued; “I shoulda’ recognized you! You’re that TV host!” The cup’s gaze immediately moved to stare at MePhone, who immediately took up an expression that made him look guilty of a crime, before shifting to false confidence.
“Pff, yeah, I’m pretty famous, huh.” He grinned, crossing his arms, trying to make himself look cooler.
“Yeah! I mean, my uh… my parents used to put on that show all the time to keep me busy while they did other stuff! I never really paid much attention, but I do remember seeing you on the TV!”
MePhone’s expression faltered a bit at the implications, but he kept up the false confidence, not wanting to disappoint, or ruin someone’s image of him. Something in MePhone’s systems was making him feel vastly uncomfortable about all of this, but he wasn’t going to say anything. Especially not in front of a child who apparently already has too much going on in their life.
“Anyways, do you know where you’re from originally?”
“Um… I wouldn’t be able to tell from here, it was a big island with a city, uhm… I… Don’t really wanna go back there though,” The child pouted, thankfully the previous topic being dropped meant MePhone didn’t have to keep up the false confidence, immediately dropping it for a neutral expression as he just kept thinking about this more, mostly blocking out the rest of the conversation.
“I don’t know if I can… Legally let you stay here, is the thing…” OJ frowned.
“Oh… Are… You going to kick me out too?” The child glanced up at OJ, a look of sadness in their eyes. OJ immediately felt guilty, knowing all too well they couldn’t just say no, and do that to them. It wasn’t like he ever faced legal trouble for letting the cherries stay here too, so…
“Ah, well… I’m sure we can figure out a work-around if you don’t have anywhere to go,” OJ offered, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. The child’s smile immediately returned.
“Oh thank you! I- I really don’t-- uhm, you’re OJ, right?”
“Y-yeah, this is MePhone,” He gestured to his partner, the awkward air still lingering, at least for him.
“Yeah, I know,” The child looked genuinely happy, pausing for just a second, before continuing; “I’m Cuppy, or Cup, or uh… Something along the lines of that, anything works, really!”
“Well then, I guess let’s get you a room? I can definitely arrange another resident to be roomed with you if you’d like, I figure you wouldn’t mind company?” OJ offered, not exactly wanting to leave this kid on their own just yet in a room.
“Oh? Who?” They tilted their head a bit.
“I think you and the Cherries would get along-- and uh, not just saying that because you’re both young, but…”
“Oh! Okay.” Cuppy hopped off the side of the bed, wobbling just a bit, before fixing their balance, following OJ as he led them out of the room, MePhone just completely silent now as he let the two go on without him.
This was reminding him too much of things he didn’t want to think about. Though obviously this was nowhere near the same situation, it still felt eerily similar. He needed to go sit down for a bit, or something.
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It was strange, to say the least, dealing with a new resident at the hotel. Though it wasn’t that big of a deal, it was still an entirely new object that was staying at the hotel now, and well, most other residents were curious. Rooming situations between several residents were moved around, and changed a bit to make it so The Cherries, and Cuppy would share a room. Though the child was social to anyone who talked to them, they didn’t say a word about where they came from, often changing the subject if anyone asked. It was definitely curious, for sure.
Today, Cuppy was hanging out on the floor of their room, doodling with The Cherries.
“So, what do you do for fun around here, ummm besides this?” Cup asked, struggling to draw without hands, having to hold the crayon in their mouth, which wasn’t the most pleasant taste, but it wasn’t the worst thing ever.
“Oh, we like to pull pranks!” The right one spoke, fully focused on the conversation as the left one was drawing.
“Ooh, what kind of pranks?”
“Well, we can’t really do anything that causes property damage anymore, but we just like doing silly harmless stuff anyways! Like one time we replaced one of the paint bottles in the art room with glue. Paintbrush got really mad about that.”
Cuppy made an ‘O’ shape with their mouth, before speaking;
“There’s an art room!? I wanna see!” They smiled, shooting up from their spot. The hotel room felt a little stuffy to them, anyways.
“Oh! Yeah, okay! I’m sure Paintbrush wouldn’t mind as long as we don’t touch anything this time,”
“Or we could plot another prank,” The right one smirked, mischievously.
“Oh! Yeah! Let’s pull a prank! Cuppy, are you in?”
“Yeah! Sounds fun!” Cup hopped in their spot, excited for where this day seemed to be going. This was already so much nicer, and much more welcoming compared to how things had been before. They could really get used to this.
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OJ sighed, his head propped up by his hands, as he leaned forward on his desk, absolutely exasperated. Sat in the two chairs across from him were the Cherries, and Cup, who had been immediately caught while in the middle of setting up a prank in the art room. They were attempting to glue all the canvases together-- which despite how silly and harmless it seemed, would have absolutely ruined the supplies. Thankfully though, Paintbrush had walked in before they could even put the first two canvases together, catching all three of them red handed.
Cuppy stared down at the floor, absolutely guilty. Pranks were supposed to be fun, right? So why did they feel so bad about it when it didn’t even happen? Were they just guilty and upset because they had been caught? The Cherries on the other hand, were used to this. It wasn’t the first time the two of them had been caught pulling pranks, and they knew exactly how to get out of trouble most of the time, but OJ really seemed disappointed this time, so they decided maybe this time they’d take the blame-- that, and they didn’t want the blame shifting onto their new roommate.
“Look, I know it gets boring around here, but you can’t just ruin art materials to be funny. It’s not funny when someone has to go out and buy replacements.”
“OJ, aren’t you a--”
“Not the point.” OJ quickly shut the left cherry down before they could say anything.
“That, and this is your first real day here, Cup. You can’t just do things like this! I know you’re new here, but we have rules in this hotel.” OJ sighed, realizing how much he seemed like a school principal. It was embarrassing. This was not the way he wanted to be perceived, so he immediately softened his expression and posture.
“Look, I’ll let you off this once, but please don’t do something like this again. Pranks can be fun, sure, but not when they upset people. Okay?”
“I’m sorry,” Cuppy sounded genuine, their posture timid and scared, as if they were absolutely terrified at the idea of getting in trouble.
“Okay! Great lesson OJ, we better get going,” The right cherry attempted to move out of the seat, ready to leave, but OJ just sighed; “I was talking to Cuppy, not you. This is the third time you’ve broken the rules with one of your pranks. Cup, you can go, I still need to lecture the cherries about this.”
“Okay,” Cuppy’s tone was quiet as they slid out of the seat, trudging out of the room a bit, the guilt around them almost tangible. They festered a bit as they walked through the hallway, not noticing the other object walking by until it was literally too late, the two of them bumping into each other. Cuppy stumbled back, before looking up at whoever it had been, seeing it was MePhone, who also just must’ve been not paying attention, having fallen into a sitting position.
“H’what, uh-- oh, it’s… you,” He let out awkwardly, glancing to the side, before getting himself back to his feet, dusting himself off.
“Uh… sorry about that, was thinking too hard I guess. Y’know, because I’m really good at thinking.” He cringed at himself, knowing that sounded really stupid. Cuppy didn’t think so though, the guilt falling to the backburner as they spoke; “Oh? You’re good at thinking? That’s cool! That seems like a good skill to have,” They smiled, their optimism returning. They weren’t going to let that small pang of guilt ruin their day. Not when they still had fun to have, and people to talk to. Especially MePhone! They didn’t pay much attention to him on the TV, but they were sure he must have interesting stories from whatever he was doing on that show;
“You really think so?”
“Yeah! Thinking is fun… Uh, most of the time!”
“...Yeah?” MePhone almost seemed amused, or at least he would have if it weren’t more of a nervousness. He just seemed very nervous around them, and Cuppy wanted to fix that!
“What was your show about?”
“Didn’t you say you watched it?”
“Only sort of,” They admitted, a bit embarrassed. MePhone sighed, letting go of some of his nerves.
“You could go claim the tv in the lobby and watch it, I’m sure hearing it on will drive anyone else in the room away.” MePhone grinned, realizing how funny that would be, something to make the ex-contestants roll their eyes or avoid the lobby completely, lest they’re faced with their old selves on live television from all those years ago.
“Ooh! Yeah, sure! Will you watch it with me? I don’t like it when people put shows on for me only to not pay attention…” They frowned a bit, before shaking that off, and smiling again.
MePhone didn’t have anything better to do, so…
“Yeah, sure, why not?” He shrugged, leading the shorter object to the lobby. For once, the TV was not occupied, so MePhone made his move, turning it on, and searching for his show. Of course, it wasn’t on a streaming service or anything, season 3 didn’t even really officially air anywhere, just being dropped online sometime after it wrapped up, but that meant it was easier to find for free. Sure, he could’ve looked for the original harddrive he had… Somewhere, with all the seasons, but that would take forever. He didn’t really remember where he left that anyways, so it was fine.
“Let’s start with season one. Everyone kinda hated it, but I think my passion was in the right place… Even if it… uh, got rough at times,” MePhone glanced away, not bringing up the obvious. As the two watched through the season, Cuppy would point out the residents-- or in this case, contestants, that they had already run into at the hotel, simply stating if they liked their company or not with the ones they did interact with. Eventually, they reached an episode where another phone showed up. MePhone4S.
“Yeah I don’t actually remember most of what happened after that, but OJ said it had something to do with time travel, uh… Yeah.”
“Who’s the red phone?”
“Oh? Um…” MePhone glanced away, not really answering.
“Oh nobody. Just the big, bad, scary 4S!” A voice called out from behind the couch, growing increasingly ‘fake scary’, and loud as the voice continued. Cuppy let out a yelp, whipping around, and promptly falling off the couch to see the same red phone from the TV in person, standing behind the couch.
“Oh come on, were you just waiting for that or something?” MePhone glared at him half-heartedly, pausing the TV.
“No, I just happened to be coming down from my room. It was good timing.” 4S grinned, mischievously, his expression dropping as he looked down at the kid who was still on the floor, a frown on their face.
“Er… sorry for scaring you.” 4S apologized, before walking around the couch to help them up, sitting them back down on the couch. “I can’t believe you’re making this kid sit through your crappy show.” 4S chuckled, sitting down too, next to MePhone, him now being in the middle.
“Hey, it’s not crappy. You don’t get to say that.” MePhone stuck out his tongue towards his brother.
“Yeah, sure. Anyways, I think you should watch something else. Before you reach y’know what.” 4S shrugged, mentioning it with a casual tone to not make it seem like a big deal, promptly reminding MePhone about what happened again, without letting the child catch on.
“Uh, yeah, right, uh… Let’s just skip to season two, the only important thing was that OJ won anyway.”
“Really?! I never would’ve guessed!” Cuppy finally shook off their mild shock, making a joke.
“Really?” MePhone raised an eyebrow, not catching on that they weren’t being serious.
“I think the kid was using sarcasm. Not that you would’ve known.” 4S elbowed MePhone, who elbowed him back; “Hey! Says you of all objects?” And 4S just retorted with a curt laugh, leaning into the armrest.
“Anyways… Yeah, let's just start season two.”
The three of them continued watching for a bit, MePhone’s assumption of nobody wanting to come down and see themselves on TV being right, as the lobby saw little foot traffic that day. Cuppy was just glad to have this peace, not being questioned by random residents. They were starting to enjoy the show they were being shown, too. They wondered if any of the other residents were really into the show they all apparently competed on. They’d have to find that out.
They’d have to check in on The Cherries and see if they got scolded too badly later, but for now this moment was fine. They liked spending this time with MePhone, and his slightly scary brother. It was certainly a fun viewing experience.