Chapter Text
Pencil awoke with a gasp, clutching her chest as she sat upright. She’d expected the time magic to hurt, but she didn’t think it’d be that bad. The woman’s whole body was burning up like she was really on fire -Pencil knew the feeling of being set ablaze well- and needed to be put out before she died. The pain faded quickly, but Pencil could still feel a spark of magic flow through her form if she thought about it for too long.
Looking around, Pencil realized that she was in some sort of forest. Massive trees loomed overhead, hundreds of feet tall with moss and lichen painting their bark. Wildflowers were spread across the ground, their stems and leaves flowing and intermingling like a mushroom mycelium system. A river flowed distantly, rushing water heard but not seen. Bugs scurried through the undergrowth, a few brave enough to crawl along Pencil’s legs until she crushed them beneath a shaking fist. This wasn’t the field she where she had first seen that speaker box, and Pencil doubted that she was even in Goiky anymore.
That damned number had lied to her! Pencil slammed her fist into the dirt, enraged. Pencil should have known better than to give away ultimate power to the first number that knew how to smooth-talk. How could she be so stupid!? Why in the world would she think to trust a number!?
Staggering to her feet, Pencil sighed. That number -One?- was probably eons away by now; there was no way Pencil would get that power back. Glancing around once more, Pencil, unable to see any defined paths through the woods, picked a random direction and started walking. She probably should have put more thought into where she was going, but she didn’t even know what the was walking towards. Her friends? They’d abandon her the moment they heard about what she had done. The competition grounds? What was the point of competing anymore? Two’s power was gone. There was nothing to battle for.
Pencil wondered there was even anybody still alive. The challenge had been to kill everybody, and if Pencil was the last one standing, and she was just now waking up, then there would be nobody to recover the dead contestants. Did that mean that she was alone in the world? There were still other people on earth, yes, but nobody else in Goiky. If nobody else was alive, then Pencil was on her own. Maybe she could find a recovery center and bring back her dead friends (if she even had any left).
The forest was dense, the meagre light filtering through the leaves above barely enough to guide Pencil’s way through the shrubbery. The air was warm, at the very least, so Pencil had that going for her. Plus, it was daytime. Pencil couldn’t imagine having to navigate through the maze of a forest without light, however spackled and faded it was.
Kicking a rock into a bush, Pencil glanced over at a patch of flowers. They were a deep purple with orangish centres of bountiful pollen. Crouching down next to one, Pencil stroked its velvety petals, careful not to tear the delicate plant.
“What the-“ a gruff voice muttered from behind Pencil. The woman startled, jostling the flower into releasing a cloud of orange pollen. Pencil screamed as she felt it get into her eyes, burning like acid. The writing utensil clawed at her eyes, trying to rid herself of the painful sensation. A curse was hissed out from behind Pencil before something grabbed her by the arm, dragging her off to who knows where.
Cold water filled Pencil’s senses as she felt herself be dunked under. Pencil struggled against the force keeping her under, kicking and punching blindly. She just woke up, she wasn’t going to die so quickly. Pencil’s fist connected with something hard, eliciting a grunt of pain.
“Stop that! I’m trying to help you!” The scratchy voice yelled as Pencil was dragged out from the water. The woman only had enough time for a desperate gasp for air before being dunked under again. Opening her eyes against the burning sensation, Pencil found that the cool water soothed the pain of the stinging pollen. Pencil was only under the current for a few moments longer before being thrust back into the open air, falling onto her back with a cough. A blurry shape hovered over her body, piercing blue contrasting with a calm grey.
In fact, the whole world seemed to be blurry. Colours smudged together like a child’s finger painting that was given up on partway through. At first, Pencil had just thought that it was residual water in her eyes, but as she dried, the blurriness stayed. Everything meshed together as if the forest was supposed to be a woven tapestry but all the colours were put into the wrong places.
“How are your eyes? Can you see me?” The blue figure shifted as it talked. No- as she talked. Pencil knew that voice well; how could she ever forget it? A blue painted metal body and mesh head, slightly warped from Pencil’s messed up vision. The woman sported some sort of green wrapping on her torso; questionably and garishly ugly, but not worth mentioning.
“Fanny,” Pencil grit, spitting out the name like it was laced with poison. Of all the people that she could run into, why did it have to be her!?
“Yeah, yeah, it’s me, who could have guessed,” Fanny mocked, her face in a weird half-snarl, “now answer my question. Can you see me?” Pencil nearly stayed silent out of spite, but after a moment, she realized how bad of an idea that was. She could barely make out the world around her, and she didn’t have powers anymore. Fanny had all the high ground, and Pencil had a feeling that despite being on a sissy team that cried about death, Fanny wouldn’t hesitate to attack. Fanny wasn’t very strong, but she was aggressive and would definitely fight dirty.
“Everything’s a bit blurry, but I can still see,” Pencil answered, a half-truth. Fanny hummed, taking a step back as Pencil stood up. Shaking off the last droplets of liquid that clung to her form, Pencil revelled in how Fanny flinched back at the spray of cold river water.
“No thanks to you. The river probably screwed up my vision when you tried to drown me,” Pencil accused, taking a defensive stance. Fanny scoffed at her words, cocking her hip with unearned sass.
“First of all, that’s not how water works,” Fanny retorted, “and second, you should be grateful you can even see in general. If that acid wasn’t diluted by the river, you wouldn’t have eyes at all. Honestly, I don’t even know why you were so ignorant as to stick your face in a stinging fume flower in the first place.” The fan shifted near constantly as she talked, as if no position was comfortable enough to stay in for longer than a second.
“A stinging what flower?” Pencil questioned, rolling her shoulders back.
“A stinging fume flower. Do- do you not know what that is?” Fanny explained, seeming to be genuinely confused at Pencil’s lack of knowledge.
“Believe it or not, not everybody is a plant nerd, idiot,” Pencil sneered back, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Well, it’s hard to not know what they are when they’re everywhere!” Fanny shouted back, “have you been hiding under a rock for the past three months!? I mean- next you’re going to tell me you don’t know what a saproot tree is!”
“I don’t know what a saproot tree is,” Pencil deadpanned, her hands dropping to rest on her hips. It was hard to make out, but Fanny’s expression seemed to drop at her words. The fan was silenced for a few moments, opening her mouth a couple times like a gasping fish on grass.
“Where… have you been for the past three months?” Fanny asked slowly, taking a subtle step back. Pencil used the opportunity to take a more heightened stance, straightening her back and standing to her full height.
“What do you mean- I- three months? What in wood’s name are you talking about?” Pencil inquired in what she hoped was an authoritative tone.
“After the last challenge. You just- disappeared. Nobody could find you, you couldn’t be recovered… nothing. Everybody thought you had somehow managed to permanently die once the challenge ended. Do you…” Fanny trailed off, looking Pencil in the eyes for what was probably the longest period of time in her life.
“Three months…” Pencil muttered, “that… no- the last challenge just happened. I- are you trying to trick me!?” She shouted, pointing an accusatory finger towards the fan in front of her. Fanny simply sighed tiredly in response.
“Great, so she either managed to time travel or I’ve got an amnestic on my hands. Because this just had to get worse,” Fanny mumbled to herself, not quite low enough to be out of Pencil’s hearing range, “listen,” she began, her voice louder, “I need you to tell me exactly what you remember happening before I found you.”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Pencil laughed, leaning forward to come face-to-face with the short fan. Fanny scoffed, rolling her eyes and taking another step back.
“Pencil, I’m being very generous right now; I don’t have to do this, I could just leave you behind and go about my day pretending I didn’t see you,” Fanny illuminated, her tongue laced with venom.
“Then why don’t you? It’d be less for me to deal with,” Pencil snarked back, her hands curling into fists.
“Because you’d be dead within an hour,” Fanny responded simply, “think about it, Pencil. You’re practically blind in a dangerous forest that you’re apparently unfamiliar with. Half the plants here can and will kill you in the blink of an eye, and you’ll never see it coming. You will not survive out here on your own, and I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s nobody else around. It’s just us. I’m all you’ve got, so you can either lose the attitude, or you can be left alone to figure out just how many ways you can die to a plant.” This time, Pencil was the one who was shocked into silence. She wanted to call Fanny a liar, but it felt too real. Her words were too specific to be made up. Fanny was telling the truth.
“When the challenge ended, I found a… way… to travel through time,” Pencil mustered, unable to look the other woman in the eyes -not that she’d be able to see them very well if she did- “I tried to go back, but I guess something went wrong, because I apparently went forward three months into the future. I’ve been here for less than ten minutes.” Pencil wanted to take back her words immediately, but it was too late. What Fanny was going to do with that information, she wasn’t sure, but it was out there nevertheless.
Fanny hummed in response, tapping her foot against the rocky riverbed as she thought. She was silent for a long time, pondering something, either Pencil’s words or their situation. Pencil wasn’t sure, nor did she even think it mattered.
“Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do,” Fanny spoke slowly, as if the words weren’t sure if they wanted to come out of her mouth, “you’re going to come with me, and you’re going to travel by my side until either we find your team or one of us dies. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Believe it or not, your team still cares about you -for some reason- and really, you don’t have many options here,” the woman offered, her gruff voice growing evermore cocky as she spoke.
“Fine,” Pencil grit back, “but as soon as we find my team, I’m leaving you behind.” She spoke as if ridding Fanny of her presence was some sort of punishment. Fanny nodded, turning around and beginning to walk away. Pencil followed a few steps behind, careful to not make herself seem too desperate. Which she wasn’t! Pencil hated Fanny just as much as the spiteful woman hated her. In Pencil’s time, she’d just killed Fanny less than an hour ago!
Pencil hated how it had to be Fanny. Of all the people that could have found her, it had to be the worst person she knew. Pencil could deal with Golfball’s narcissistic nerdy rants. Pencil could deal with Bottle’s overwhelmingly annoying cheeriness. Pencil could maybe deal with Grassy’s whining and Book’s anger. Pencil could not deal with Fanny’s enraged yelling and constant frustration. Pencil didn’t mind admitting the fact that the fan was an auditory bother to all who came near, especially Pencil herself. She’d considered herself lucky that they hadn’t interacted all too much after her rejoin. Pencil’s luck seemed to have run out, however.
“Careful of that plant,” Fanny mentioned, nodding towards a piece of foliage nearly indistinguishable from everything else around it thanks to Pencil’s blurry vision, “don’t go touch it, don’t smell it; actually, just don’t go near it at all.” The fan gave the plant a wide berth as she walked, Pencil following and doing the same. The silence stretched on between them for a few moments longer before Fanny spoke again, because she just had to flaunt her voice, didn’t she?
“I have a camp not too far from here where we can settle in for the night. In the morning, I’ll pack everything up and we’ll get on our way. I hate not having a permanent residence, but we’ll never find your team if we have to keep returning to the same place whenever it gets dark,” Fanny explained, a leaf crunching beneath her foot like a shattering glass pane. Pencil nodded at her words, then nearly facepalmed at her stupidity. Fanny was walking in front of her with her back turned; she couldn’t see Pencil. By the time she got over herself, it was too late to reasonably respond without making things even more awkward, so Pencil remained silent.
All things considered, the forest probably would have been nice scenery if Pencil was able to properly see it. Speckles of colour dotted the ground and sometimes the leaves above; Pencil assumed them to be flowers, but maybe some were fruit or berries. Birds cawed distantly as squirrels bolted up trees, ants crawling back to their hills and bees buzzing indifferently. The forest was alive, a very harsh contrast to how Pencil remembered the world when she disappeared. According to Fanny, it had only been three months since the challenge, which begged the question:
How the lead did the world change so quickly?