Chapter Text
“You alright there Moldster?”
“Did I not tell you and everyone else to go away?”
“If it helps, I have another reason to be here.”
“Alright, hit me.”
There was a shuffling of a – still not yet folded, despite that being the challenge goal – piece of paper.
“This.”
“Your piece of paper?”
“Yep.”
“Does this have anything to do with you forgetting to fold it and losing? ”
“Rub it in my face, will ya? But no, it’s… the words.”
“What words could you be talking about? They were all blank!”
The piece of paper was turned.
“Look, it's a whole letter.”
“Oh, cool.”
“I read through it at least eleven times now and- and I just don’t know how to feel about it! I was hoping you could help.”
“Do I look like a mind reader?”
“I mean no but-”
“Dude, I’m kidding. Run me through it.”
Laughter.
“Run you… through the paper? How would that-”
“I mean, explain it to me. The paper and the feeling stuff.”
More laughter. She was laughing. He was too. Laughing together.
“Ohhh. Okay, let me figure out how to word this.”
The piece of paper was held up and seemingly studied.
“Thought of it yet?”
“Yep, uhh… You know those guys from my old world?”
“Yeah I think I know more about them than I know about my own extended family.”
“Yeah sorry about that-”
“You’re fine.”
“-but did I explain episode… eight? I think it was eight, but it's hard to remember.”
“Nope. Didn’t you only really… wake up, as you put it, during episode nine or ten? Something about clay?”
“I remember a couple episodes before, just not properly. But the main thing was that each team had to come up with… a deep thought? I think? And the other team lost but the one that had thought it, it…”
There was the sound of nervous tapping.
“It was…?”
The tapping stopped.
“Basically a… fourth wall break , if you will. They talked about the nature of our show compared to others, how it was basically a confusing gag thing, all of that stuff.”
“So basically everything you’ve told me?”
A defence was seemingly activated.
“Yeah, but, it's not me! It's different. I’m different. We… we aren’t…”
“Right. Continue.”
“Alright. So their thoughts kind of… woke me up. Snapped me out of the shared trance and stuff. They are basically the reason the mole grew and things like that.”
“What does that have to do with the letter?”
“Well, they were the one that wrote it. They escaped… that show , ended up somewhere else and somehow got this letter to me.”
“That’s possible?”
“Apparently. And they talked about me… inspiring them? To be different? And now they look even more unique than I could even fathom.”
“And you’re upset about this… why?”
“Honestly? It's more just that I don’t know what to think. And also because I thought they’d kinda hate me.”
“Okay, that’s stupid. If they wrote a letter to you then surely… uh. We need a nickname system here, I’m lost.”
“Tell me about it. They said here that their name is… Animatic . Honestly, better than what I could come up with.”
She laughed again, “Why would this Animatic guy reach out if he basically wanted you dead?”
Silence.
“From what I’m reading, they want to see how you’re doing.”
Still, nothing.
“I mean, it’s not as if you have to be afraid-”
“Then why am I afraid?”
“I wish I knew.”
Back and forth, back and forth.
“I feel like it's all crashing down now. There’s a choice and I’ve never had to deal with choices before! And- and I don’t like that they were able to get out on their own accord and see a sort of… trial run for being your own person. And their name and how different their appearance is…”
She simply sat up in response and despite her tiredness, looked at him and tried to smile. “Anything else?”
He sat down next to her, “I don’t like any of this. I don’t like how easy anger is to feel but other emotions are harder and I barely understand them.”
Yet it always stays the same.
“You don’t have to… think about it now, and stuff like that. What’s that stuff that’s always bein’ said in the yoga classes?”
“The one about living in the present?”
“Yeah. That. Remember that.”
And so, the world stopped. The feelings paused as the light and never-ending breeze took over.
For now, things would be peaceful. Just for now, things could be okay. Everything would be okay.
That was, until, a voice appeared again. A voice of hell, a voice of power. A voice of everyone’s nightmares.
“The next elimination… will happen… now.”
— — — — —
Nobody there. Nothing there. The only sign of life being an applause congratulating anyone for anything.
“Why am I surprised?” Animatic asked, “It was like this when I disappeared.”
He didn’t know why he came back. Curiosity? To see if he could find someone again and get a reaction? A gut feeling?
A lingering connection to this… hivemind thing?
Didn’t matter! He had to get back to his own show, the elimination would be soon!
Yet the feeling remained.
Animatic put his hands together, ready to – only for a second – join the applause of his previous life, but only to get away from it again.
That was, until, he saw in the distance;
Someone who looked almost like he did back then.
Almost.
The two clones-no-longer stared at each other in utter confusion, like a spell that couldn’t be remedied. Like a destiny that shan't be shattered. Like a status quo that couldn’t be broken.
“Wait, Animatic?”
But since when had the status quo mattered anyway?
“And now we leave!”
He clapped, succumbing to the collective applause for a moment, before the reunited duo appeared somewhere new. The showgrounds for Animatic Battle.
Now things wouldn’t go wrong. Hopefully.