Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Silence. Complete silence. This was a normal day in Stone’s life. Or was it a month? A year? However long since the last word had been uttered in this place. Is it even a place? Maybe it was just a memory, a dream, somewhere nothing bad could ever happen. Nothing will end; not the extreme fun of sitting around— waiting for something, only god knows what, to happen— and definitely not Stone’s life. Whether or not anyone in this so-called place had ever moved a muscle, Stone couldn’t remember anymore. They had this slight hope that maybe one day they could be the one to move, to speak, to do anything.

And then they were gone.

Chapter Text

"At least this guy seems normal," the person ahead of Stone said, gesturing to them. “Hey! How’s it going?” 

Walking over, Stone looked at their hands and signed: "I know everything that has, is, and will happen in the entire universe." 

After a moment of silence, the person spoke up; "I don't understand that." They didn’t expect him to, if they were being honest. Stone moved in a way that indicated sighing, although no sound came from them as they walked away, making sure to take in their surroundings.

There was nothing much, if they were being honest, only some triangle-shaped grass (Stone thought this was somewhat odd), a horizon which showed that the plane was so small you could see a noticeable curve in the sphere, and some large logs stuck in the ground. Around one of the logs, there was a faint dark red color in a splatter. Approaching the area, Stone noticed the vague smell of blood. They blinked a couple times, trying to register exactly where they were.

“Are we done with the freakshow here?”, Stone’s thought was interrupted by a girl with greenish-brown hair. She shot a glare at Stone, who replied with a curious, although still neutral, look. An abstract object started to mirror the girl’s look, although shattered. 

“Hi, I’m Moldy! I’m a total jerkwad who insults people to improve my own self image! On top of that, I manipulated my closest friends on multiple occasions!” It mocked, sounding almost exactly like her, just with what could only be described as glitches. 

“Okay, now you’ve done it.” The girl, supposedly called Moldy, started walking towards the odd thing that was mocking her, and swung at it, only for it to appear to shatter a hole in itself.

“I’m also compulsively violent!”

Moldy took a second to move her arm out of the abstract version of herself, clearly shocked. She muttered something to herself, something Stone couldn’t make out.

Someone else appeared, as well as a voice echoing from seemingly nowhere, introducing him as Circle. Stone thought the voice seemed oddly calm for what it was doing. They listened around for some hint as to what was happening.

The conversations seemed normal for people who’ve been kidnapped— the frantic “Do you know where we are?”s, the “What’s going on?”s, and the occasional “What kind of thing is that!? (Referring to the abstract object, of course).” Besides the first group, Stone seemed to be the only one who had even a slight idea of what was happening, of what was going to happen.

—

Stone listened in to the conversation of two guys, one with a poorly made wooden cast, the other with a tired look on his face (They could tell from the eyebags and partially closed eyes.) Something about a tomato, an awkward pause, and asking about how the tired man's— Soda Bottle, Stone soon learned— life was before appearing on the plane. If he had anything interesting going on. Stone thought of laughter, not being able to make the noise themself, but able to imagine it. As if anyone here had anything interesting to talk about, and even if they did, why would they share it with a stranger? The boy with the cast was ignored. Another awkward pause, before Soda Bottle asked the boy— Backpack, apparently— if he really thought he had an answer to that. Backpack sighed and walked away.

There was a sudden screech, not human, but rather from a microphone. The voice welcomed what they called the new contestants, before being interrupted. The pale man (Stone wondered if he had gone outside before. Not that it mattered anymore, though.), apparently called Circle, said, laughing awkwardly: “I’m not doing another game show. I’m out of here.” He started walking away (god knows where he would even go, Stone thought), only to be teleported back to his original position. Circle tries to walk away a few more times, eventually only moving a step, before asking if he could please leave, to no response.

“Anyways.. I’m your host, Airy, and welcome to this competition called ONE.” The click of a button was heard. Stone heard the voice, who they now knew was someone called Airy, whisper to himself: “The heck? Uh.. what?” Stone ran over to Soda Bottle, who looked at them crazy, and gestured towards the sky, arms moving frantically. Soda Bottle, unknowing of what Stone was referring to, asked what they were doing, before being pushed out of the way.

“What was that for?” Soda Bottle asked angrily, before Stone gestured to the sky one last time before a cassette player fell, landing directly where Soda Bottle was standing before. 

Airy’s voice rang out once again, telling everyone to get into teams of four, not seeming to care about the borderline chaos happening among the contestants. Amidst the questioning people, all wondering where the voice was, with some still asking what was happening, Stone walked over to Texty and grabbed them, before heading back over to Backpack and Soda Bottle. The girl with light blue hair, who they learned was called Scenty, mentioned how now there were five people, that Texty couldn’t be on the team, before Stone stopped her and pointed away sadly. 

“Wait, what?” She asked, “Am I not being let on the team?” Stone opened their eyes to appear apologetic, and Scenty walked towards the other groups, though hesitantly.

“Why can’t we keep Scenty with us?” Backpack questioned. Stone just shook their head. 

Once their team was all together, Stone clapped twice to grab Airy’s attention, letting him know at least one team was prepared. It took a while before the rest of the teams were assembled, but it didn’t matter much. They had all the time in the world.

There was the crackle of a microphone as Airy came back to talk to the people on the plane. Stone could hear the guy with a brightly patterned shirt sigh as he was interrupted by Airy. 

“Your next challenge is, to.. uh, run to the tree, and back. The.. the last team to have a member run to the tree and back will be up for elimination. Uh.. go.” Stone already knew about this, and they already had a plan. They heard the odd, seemingly neutral voice ask if Backpack and Soda Bottle weren’t doing the challenge again, as Texty made it back to the group. Backpack and Soda Bottle hadn’t even noticed Texty nor Stone walking away. “Oh. Never mind. Texty made it to the tree.. And Texty wins immunity for their team.” 

Stone snuck up behind a man with thick glasses. “Contact Lens!” Scenty exclaimed, standing up quickly. Stone grabbed Contact Lens by his shirt and bolted towards the tree, keeping the man close behind. Scenty followed behind, slowly closing the distance between them. They made Contact Lens touch the tree, and ran back to the groups. “What the heck is your problem?!” Stone ignored Amelia yelled at them as they walked back to their group.

“And Tex- Contact Lens wins immunity for his team.” Airy announced, signaling that all the teams but one had finished their task.