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The human-enderman hybrid went through the barrels of his house for no particular reason. He didn’t have an idea of what to do at the moment, so looking through them would preoccupy him as well as give him a possibility to find something else to do. He constantly looked back at the barrels full of building blocks. The enderman narrowed his eyes, hoping that if he stared long enough at the blocks, a building idea would come to mind, giving him something to do.
It was unsuccessful. He grunted and closed the barrel back up and went over to the kitchen. With nothing specific in mind, he looked through the cabinets for something to eat. He came across the cabinet full of bread, so he took a loaf with his enderman hand and bit down into it. Leaning against the counter, the man watched the window. He blinked in confusion as, between the closed blinds, he saw a figure move towards the door.
Loud kicks came from the door as well as a shout. The enderman frowned as he recognized the voice.
“Subz!” they shouted from outside. “Let me in! Please!!”
Subz stayed leaning against the counter, looking at the door.
More kicking occurred once again at the door. The man sighed and ambled over to it. He quickly ate the rest of his bread and swung the door open. Quickly, a demonic fox with purple-and-orange-streaked hair walked into the house carrying an old-school television in his hands. That would explain the kicking.
The demon walked over to the kitchen table and placed the TV down. He shook his head, letting the hood of his black-and-magneta cloak slide off his head and the top of his head to show.
“You came back with a TV?” Subz asked with disappointment.
The fox flicked his orange ears. “Yeah!”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you why if you give me a ‘welcome back’.”
Subz rolled his eyes. “Welcome back from your long trip to somewhere, Vitalasy. You came home with an old TV that we literally don’t need because we have a better one over there.” He gestured his hand towards the said television that sat in the living room.
Vitalasy brushed the boxy television with his hands. “Yeah, but I wasn’t exactly thinking we would use it to, uh, watch on.”
“Then what? You’re collecting antiques now?”
The demon looked up and smiled. Whatever this was implying, Subz didn’t like it. “What is it?” he asked, hesitantly.
“Okay, okay, so I’m thinking that-” Vitalasy started.
“Nope, bad idea,” interrupted Subz. He smirked and Vitalasy flattened his ears in annoyance.
“You haven’t even heard me out yet! I haven’t- I haven’t even said what my idea was.”
“I don’t need to. It’s probably bad anyways.”
“Hmph!” The fox scowled and swayed his tail back and forth along the floor. “Well, I was thinking that we can make a robot with this- this TV. It could make a cool-looking head, I think.”
Subz scoffed. “We? No. You’re gonna make that robot by yourself. I don’t want in.”
Vitalasy took off his cloak and placed it beside the television. He was wearing his usual black shirt underneath it. “What? You think it’s gonna blow up or something?”
“No, I think that a lot of things would go wrong, actually, which does include the whole ‘blowing up’ part.” Subz crossed his arms as he watched Vitalasy approach him suspiciously. He stepped back a little. “What do you want now?”
The fox stared at him before suddenly pressing the cheek of his face against Subz’. Subz tried pushing him away, but Vitalasy pressed on. “Pleaseeee?” he begged, his purple eyes also begging for the enderman hybrid to help him out with the project.
Baring his teeth, Subz resisted the urge to knock his roommate away with his curled, black horns. After a long ten seconds, he took a deep sigh and gave in. “Fine.”
Vitalasy immediately hugged his friend out of excitement. He then broke away and threw his hands into the air. “Yay!!” he cheered. Subz uncrossed his arms and walked over to the table. He picked up the heavy TV with both hands and walked over to the trash can. He stepped on the peddle, allowing the lid of the can to fling open, and held the TV over the bin.
The happiness from Vitalasy vanished, and the fox gasped and scrambled over to him. Subz smiled, “Say goodbye to this old thing!” The demon grabbed Subz’ arm and tried taking the large box of a television out of his arms.
“You can’t throw it away!” he exclaimed, struggling to pull the TV out of Subz’ hands. He tugged and tugged. “You just agreed to build the robot with me.”
Subz struggled back. “Okay, I was kidding! Stop it or else it’ll actually break.” Then Vitalasy stopped, staring intently at the electronic. “Let’s take it to the basement, okay?”
“Okay then.”
Vitalasy followed Subz through the hallway, going past both of their rooms and the bathroom, and reaching the last door. Subz nudged it open and there there was a set of wooden stairs that went down to the basement.
The two of them went down the stairs. Subz placed the TV down onto a table. He grabbed some nearby paper and pens and placed them beside it, and he pulled the nearby chair to the table. He turned around to see Vitalasy standing there, clueless as ever, so he gestured his hand towards the table. “You sit here and draw out whatever you’re thinking about for this robot. I’ll go get supplies.”
Vitalasy’s ears perked up and his tail wagged. “Okay! I got a really great idea..” He went over to the chair and sat down. He took off his magenta gloves, picked up a pen, and started scribbling onto the paper. He hummed happily and Subz smiled.
The enderman hybrid turned and, once again, went looking through barrels and chests, this time with items in mind. He grabbed iron, copper, and other scrap metals from a chest, and a wrench and screwdriver from a nearby cabinet. He picked up wires and tweezers and other tools he believed he would need for this project. Subz continued for the next couple of minutes looking through the mess of a basement for other useful things.
Subz ran his hand through his brown hair and looked over at Vitalasy, who was tapping the pen on his chin. “I think I have everything,” he told him.
Vitalasy looked up at Subz and then back at his paper. “Uh, give me a sec.” He made a few more scribbles onto the paper. “Okay! I’m done now.” Subz looked over his friend’s shoulder and studied the drawings and marks.
Subz leaned back and nodded in approval, and Vitalasy’s face lit up once again. “Let’s get started with this robot then!” The enderman spoke with a confident grin.
“Woo!” the fox cheered in response.
“There.” Subz wiped his forehead and stood back, hands on his hips. He looked at the robot that he had taken a week to build (Vitalasy didn’t do much; he didn’t really know how to do anything. He was there to give Subz the items he needed and moral support. That’s it).
There it was, standing there and powered off. The robot was ever so slightly taller than Subz, which made it also shorter than Vitalasy. Its gray TV head had two black antennas, both holding purple cubes at their ends. It wore a white t-shirt over its bronze body and black jeans over its legs.
Vitalasy was unable to hold his excitement and hopped over to stand in front of the TV-headed robot. He stared at the screen to see his reflection. “You’re done! Subz, I am so excited. Thank you so much for doing this, Subz.”
“No problem, Vitalasy,” Subz replied pleasantly. He walked behind the bot and looked at the three ports it had in the back of its head. “When I put these three cables in, it should turn on, got it?” The fox nodded aggressively. Subz quickly tied the laces of the shirt together before looking back up at the ports.
“Okay then. One…” The yellow cable went in.
“Two…” Next, it was the green cable.
“Anddd three.” The last cable, the red one, was plugged into the TV.
There was silence. Vitalasy held his breath. He did not take his eyes off the screen, for he didn’t want to miss the moment the screen turned on. Subz stepped to the side, watching the robot as well.
The enderman frowned. He began, “Maybe-”
Vitalasy gasped as two pairs of purple rectangles appeared onto the screen. He stared at them in wonder and then he smiled. “Prismatics.”
“What?” Subz asked.
“Prismatics.” Vitalasy repeated. He threw himself at the robot and hugged it. “That’s his name! His name is Prismatics.”
Subz watched as Vitalasy close his eyes and hold Prismatics in his arms. The robot looked confused, and that made Subz chuckle.
“It’s a nice name,” Subz complimented. “One of the few good names you’ve ever given out.”
Vitalasy opened his eyes. He held back a remark. “Thanks.” He pulled away from his new friend. “Prismatics, my name is Vitalasy, and that’s Subz.” Prismatics turned his head over to the enderman hybrid in curiosity and confusion. The fox grabbed the robot’s arm and pulled him, attempting to have him follow him. The robot stumbled forward but did not fall.
“Woah, woah. Easy there, Vitalasy,” Subz said. “You don’t want to break him so soon.”
“I know, I just-” Vitalasy stopped the robot from shaking. “You need to learn how to walk, okay? First, you have to put one leg out like this.. and then this.. And then you’re walking!” He walked back and forth in front of Prismatics, and the bot watched his leg movements. It was his turn, and although it looked a bit awkward, Prismatics managed to walk.
Vitalasy face beamed with pride. “Great! You’ll get better at it in no time.” He bounced over to the basement stairs and put one foot onto the first step. “Let’s go upstairs! I want to show you the things that are up there.”
Clumsily, Prismatics walked over to Vitalasy. The fox offered his hand, and after a few good seconds of staring at the hand, the TV head looked up at Vitalasy in bewilderment. The fox laughed. “I’ll help you get up the stairs,” he told him.
So the robot took his hand and up the stairs they went. Subz watched them carefully and calmly. Everything seemed alright so far; Vitalasy seemed to care deeply for their new friend, and Subz was glad to see the two of them work out together.
After they went upstairs, Subz followed Vitalasy and Prismatics. He followed them through the hall, and when they reached the other end of it, the enderman went over to the living room and sat down on the couch. The man couldn't help but watch Vitalasy introduce their new roommate to anything and everything.
“This is a clock! It tells the time.”
“A microwave is used to heat up food.”
“Napkins for cleaning!”
“Bread. It’s food, and we eat food, but I don’t think you can, sorry. I’m sure you’d like it, though.”
“That’s a TV! Just like your head but a newer version.”
“Fork, spoon, knife.”
“A pillow! And Subz.” Vitalasy clamped his hands together. “That’s about it for this area! That’s the kitchen, and this is the living room. I’ll show you my room another time…” He leaned towards the bot. “When Subz isn’t here,” he whispered, “I’ll show you his room.”
Unimpressed, Subz stared at the fox, who stood about a foot away from him. “I heard that.”
Vitalasy laughed awkwardly. “Heard what? You must be hearing things.” He looked over at the clock in the kitchen. “Well, would you look at the time! It’s nighttime, and it’s time for you to sleep.”
“Wha..? Since when were you my mom?” Before Vitalasy could reply, Subz continued. “Whatever. I was going to go to sleep anyway. Goodnight you two, and don’t get into any trouble.” And he went into the hallway and took a left to his bedroom.
“Night!” Vitalasy called back. He turned back to Prismatics and smiled. “Let’s go outside.”
Vitalasy led the way to the front door and opened it, allowing Prismatics to go through first. He closed the door behind him and looked at the robot, who stood on the porch and stared into the night sky. The moon was slowly rising among the oak forest. He was in awe.
“Prismatics.” The bot turned to his right and saw Vitalasy sitting down, patting the open space next to him. “Come sit here on the bench.”
The robot walked over and sat beside the demon on the wooden bench. He felt the bushy tail of the fox wrap around him, and it was comforting.
“Pris, Pris. Can I call you Pris?” Vitalasy asked. Prismatics nodded. “Okay, thanks. I don’t know if you’re able to talk, honestly, because I didn’t really build you, but you can call me Vi if you want.” Pris nodded again. “But, Pris. I hope you like this place. Not just the house. I hope you also like this whole world. It’s got some, uh, downsides too, but I really hope you like the good parts of this world. They’re really nice, believe me.”
Pris looked back up at the sky. The moon was higher now.
“Sorry, but can I also call you Prism?” Vitalasy asked again. Once again, the robot nodded in approval.
“Pris,” Vitalasy grinned, “Welcome to the world, Prismatics.”
It had been five days since Prismatics opened his eyes for the first time. Vitalasy had introduced him to literally everything from the smallest piece of gravel to the tallest tree. It was such an interesting world to be in; everything was so weird, yet they fit so well with one another.
The bot stood up from his chair in the basement. It was basically his room now.
He moved his legs and walked forward towards the stairs, climbing up them and through the hallway. Pris couldn’t hear anything from Vi’s room to the left and Subz’ room to the right. However, he did hear muffled sounds coming from outside.
Unsure of what to expect, Pris walked over to the front door. Opening it, he saw Vitalasy and Subz in the near distance, lunging and swinging at one another as the sun rose to noon. Prismatics sat down on the bench and observed their movements with curiosity.
Vitalasy gripped an iron sword, carefully striking it forward at Subz. Grinning, he swung the blade at his friend with ease, and Subz dodged it with a concentrated face. The enderman jumped back, avoiding each strike, and then, jumping to the side, Subz struck the blade of his iron sword against Vitalasy’s.
Pris continued to watch the two train. He didn’t understand how they moved so quickly and skilled, and he felt the need to learn their moves. He was in awe at their movements.
The robot watched as Vitalasy thrusted his sword, charging forward at Subz. Subz hopped to the side as Vi ran by him. As the enderman quickly turned around to prepare for his opponent’s next move, he stumbled over the fox’s tail. He fell onto the grass forward, and the fox turned around in confusion. Vitalasy burst out laughing through his sweat. He bent over with his hands on his knees, giving Subz a cheeky smile. Subz looked up, annoyed, and from what Prismatics could see, the man was shouting at the laughing creature.
Vitalasy stood up and offered his empty hand to Subz. The enderman took it and pulled himself up. He crossed his arms, holding the sword in one hand, and his mouth started moving again. Vitalasy’s response to this was patting his friend on the shoulder. His gaze drifted to his right and his purple eyes met Pris’. He waved enthusiastically, causing Subz to look over at their robot friend and give a small wave with his human hand.
Prismatics waved back at them as they approached the house.
“Hi Pris!” Vitalasy greeted, setting his sword aside against the wooden wall. “Please tell me you saw Subz fall.” His tail wagged as he waited for a response. The TV-headed robot nodded. Vi grinned, his fangs showing sharply, and he turned to look over at Subz, who was putting his sword beside Vitalasy’s.
“Subz… Everyone saw you fall,” the fox snickered. The enderman sighed in response.
“That doesn’t matter,” Subz said, waving him off. “Besides, everyone saw you miss your shots.”
“What? You wanted me to hit you??”
“Yeah. You should have hit me with your sword, but like, not too hard to the point where I’m bleeding to death.”
Vitalasy frowned. “Hitting someone with a sharp blade and making them not bleed is kinda a hard thing to do, y’know.”
“Yeah, whatever, but you could probably pull off anyway.” Subz opened the door and went inside the house.
Vitalasy followed his friend. “What happened to your lack of faith in me, huh?” the fox asked.
Subz scoffed. “We’ve been training like this for forever. Surely you’re able to do that?”
“Whatever.”
Pris followed them inside the house, closing the door behind them.
Subz took off his purple cloak and tossed it onto the couch, going into the kitchen for something to eat. Vitalasy also took off his cloak, but he placed it on the living room table. As he moved away from the table, Vitalasy gasped. Prismatics blinked and looked over at where the fox was looking at.
“What?” Subz turned around and gave the fox a look. “What is it now?”
“Nothing, nothing!” Vitalasy replied. “Sorry, I just had a cool idea.”
“Oh no..” Subz groaned.
“HEY!” The fox bit his tongue before saying anything else. He exhaled and presented his idea, “I think that it’d be cool if Pris had like this weapon-y arm. Like, he can turn one - or maybe both! - of his arms into a cool sword or an axe or something.” He moved his arms up and down in attempts to demonstrate something.
“Huh.” Subz responded thoughtfully.
“I know you like it.”
“I don’t,” the enderman stated flatly. Vitalasy blinked at him, processing his response. “I’m kidding. It’s a… decent idea. I’ll get to work.” He looked at Pris and signaled him to follow him by nodding his head towards the hallway.
“Omg, yay!!” Vitalasy cheered.
“Oh wait,” Subz paused, “I was gonna eat something first.” He turned back around and headed back into the kitchen as Prism continued down into the basement. He opened the fridge and scanned the items.
“You should eat the salad.” Vitalasy stood beside him and pointed at the bowl of salad that was covered with shrink wrap.
Subz eyed Vitalasy suspiciously. “..Why? What’d you do to it?”
“I haven’t done anything to it,” his friend reassured him. “I just don’t want to eat it.”
“Uh huh.” Subz hesitantly took the bowl out of the fridge and looked all around it, checking for anything odd. “Okay then. If I get sick, there’s only one person I’m blaming.” He grabbed the bottle of ranch and walked over to the cabinet of utensils, pulling out a fork. His skin felt hot as he felt Vitalasy staring at him, so he turned around.
“Why are you watching me?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Vitalasy admitted. “I don’t really have anything to do.”
“Can’t you like go shower or something?” Subz said crossly. “Do something that isn’t watching me because that’s really weird of you.”
Vitalasy shrugged and left the kitchen and went to his room. Subz sighed in relief, going to the kitchen table, sitting down, taking off the shrink wrap and pouring some ranch onto his salad. He scooped up some of the lettuce and took a bite.
When Subz entered the basement, he found Pris sitting at the desk patiently with several tools on it, waiting for the human. The robot looked up and nodded at his friend. He got up from the chair and stood beside it, waiting for instructions on what to do next.
Subz shook his head. “No, it’s okay. You can sit.” He gestured his hand to the chair. “I’m just working on your arm.” Pris tilted his head to the side. “I’ll work on whichever arm you want me to,” Subz answered, although he didn’t exactly know how he knew what the robot was asking. Prismatics sat back down in the chair and placed his right arm on the desk.
The enderman grabbed an assortment of materials from a chest nearby to him. He tossed the items onto the desk just short of Pris’ arm, pushing the tools to the other side of the table.
“Alright. You ready?” Subz asked, and Prism nodded. “Okay. If anything hurts- Actually..” The enderman hybrid paused and thought about what he was about to do. He suggested, “Do you want me to just power you off? You wouldn’t feel anything if you’re off.”
Pris looked at his arm thoughtfully, and then he shook his head.
“You sure?”
Prismatics nodded. Subz exhaled. “Okay then. If anything hurts, just tell me or signal me or something, ‘kay?” Pris lifted his left hand up close in front of him. Steadily, he closed his fingers into his metal palm with his thumb sticking out upwards. He closed his eyes happily, and Subz smiled.
“Alright then, let’s get started, shall we?”
Vitalasy exited the house and saw Subz pointing over to the iron sword that laid near the wall. The fox went over and picked up the weapon by the handle and walked over to his roommate. Behind the man was the robot with the gray TV head, his arms hidden from Vitalasy’s view.
“So what kind of cool weapon did you give Pris?” Vitalasy asked Subz, analyzing Pris’ stance in attempts to figure out which weapon his arms turned into. He saw Subz nod out the corner of his eye, and there, Pris revealed both of his arms.
His arms looked normal except for the large, golden bracelet that was on his right arm. The bracelet had a mechanism with a slot.
“Is this a gun?” Vitalasy took Pris’ arm lightly and examined the machine. “Are you gonna be able to shoot things out of here??”
“It’s something better,” Subz grinned, crossing his arms. “Probably. Just stand back.” So Vitalasy let go of the robot’s arm and stood back a few feet, staring at the thing attentively.
With concentration, Prismatics lifted his arm out in front of him. All three of them stared at his arm with anticipation.
And nothing happened, but they continued to wait.
Vitalasy thumped his foot softly on the green grass, gripping his fists in front of him, as Subz lowered his arms to his sides. Prismatics stood unmoving with intense concentration.
Subz sighed. “I probably have to change a few things. Maybe-”
And then there was an iron sword that extended from the slot of the golden bracelet that Pris wore. Subz gasped and bounded towards him in excitement.
“Oh my gosh!” he exclaimed. “It worked! How does your arm feel? Can you move it?” Facing away from Subz, Pris slowly moved his arm around, swinging it back and forth. He looked over his shoulder and nodded with pride.
“That’s so cool!” Vitalasy barked. “You’ve got a sword on your arm now, and you don’t need to carry it around as much like this.” He held out his hand and pointed his sword at Pris. “We should have a fight,” he smirked.
Subz walked up to Vitalasy and lowered his blade. “Pris hasn’t even fought before though.”
“He’s gotta start somewhere,” the demon replied, “and that somewhere is now.”
“Yeah, no. You’ll break him.”
“I’ll go easy.”
Subz rolled his eyes. “Knowing you, you would accidentally go too hard in your swings.”
“I wouldn’t, I swear!” Vitalasy protested. “I wasn’t slicing you up earlier, y’know, so I do know how to control my sword.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Subz turned to Prismatics. “Can you turn the sword into an axe?”
“He can turn the sword into an axe?!” Vitalasy questioned eagerly. Subz nodded, and Vitalasy’s tail wagged.
Prismatics held his arm away from them and focused on it. Within a few seconds, the sword went into the mechanism and came out as an axe. Then he turned it into a shovel, then a hoe, then a pickaxe, then a crossbow, then a fishing rod, and then a sword again.
Vitalasy dropped his sword and squealed. He threw himself at Pris and hugged him, Pris returning the hug with his left arm.
“You’re so cool, Pris!” the fox hybrid exclaimed. “You’ve always been cool, but now you’re even cooler!” He pulled away from him and smiled, patting Pris’ head.
Vitalasy glanced at Subz. “You’re cool too, Subz. Thanks so much for building literally everything.”
Subz dipped his head. “You’re welcome, Vitalasy.”
“Pris!!”
The robot’s eyes shot open. He was sleeping in his chair, making sure to not overpower his system. He had been feeling positively overwhelmed about how new everything was to him for the past couple of weeks, so in return, he also took long naps. Prismatics looked up at the basement wall and saw that it was 1 PM. Pris got onto his legs and swung his arms back and forth as Vitalasy ran down the stairs. Subz followed him shortly after.
“Good morning to you!” the fox greeted, and Pris greeted back with a nod.
“It’s the afternoon,” Subz corrected him.
“That’s literally the same thing,” Vitalasy responded, unfazed.
“It really isn’t.”
“Anyway,” Vitalasy continued, “we, as in me and Subz, have been discussing something. We were thinking about going on an adventure, all three of us! Then we can show you other things outside the house. You can experience the nature.”
Prismatics tilted his head thoughtfully. He had experienced nature several times around the house, but experiencing it further away? The robot wanted to do it, but he was a bit hesitant.
“You don’t have to go on it, by the way,” Subz chimed in. “Vitalasy can do perfectly well exploring by himself.”
Vitalasy shot him a glare. “What! You’re not gonna go with me?”
“I’ll go if Pris goes.”
“You’re no fun.” The fox stuck out his tongue. “You never want to go on adventures with me. You just stay around in the house and do literally nothing.”
“Okay, but if I went, who would watch the house, hm?” Subz countered.
“Pris would!”
“But who would watch Pris watch the house?”
Vitalasy scoffed. “You think he’s gonna burn it down or something?”
“Yes, actually.”
“I knew you had no faith in me, but no faith in Pris?,” Vi crossed his arms. “He’s probably more responsible than you anyways.”
Subz didn’t reply. He turned his focus onto Prismatics, who was standing there awkwardly. “So do you want to go on the adventure or not?”
Pris held a thumbs up as a yes.
“Well, would you look at that!” Subz said, looking at the silver bracelet on his wrist as if it were a watch. “I can’t go on this adventure anyway. I’m kinda busy.”
Vitalasy scowled and smacked Subz on the arm. The enderman rubbed the spot and frowned.
“I was kidding,” Subz grumbled. “I’ll go too. When are we leaving?”
With no hesitation, Vitalasy answered, “Tomorrow.”
Subz stared at him in silence. He replied after a few long seconds. “Why?” He held his hands out in confusion.
“They say ‘the sooner, the better’, right?” Vitalasy winked. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning around eight. Go get your stuff ready, and also, uh, make sure to check Pris’ system before we leave.” Subz didn’t take lightly to those instructions.
“Yeah, no,” he responded. “You gotta give us more time to prepare and stuff.”
Vitalasy put his hands on his hips. “Fine then. We’ll leave in two days on Tuesday at eight in the morning.”
Subz decided to negotiate. “How about three days?”
The fox narrowed his eyes. “If three days makes you happy, we can do that then.”
“Um, how about four days actually?” Subz teased. “Maybe five or six, or just give us a week instead?”
Vi chuckled, putting his arms back down. “So do you want three days or not?”
“Yeah, three days is fine.” Subz left the basement on his own terms, so the fox assumed that he still knew that they were going to leave in the morning that day.
He turned around and walked over to the area opposite of the stairs and dug through the boxes for something. Pris watched him in bewilderment as the fox opened several of them up.
“Aha!” The creature pulled out a rolled-up, dark blue sleeping bag. He tossed it to Pris, who didn’t react quick enough to catch it, so it smacked him in the face instead. The bronze robot bent down to pick up the bag, holding it with his two hands.
“Sorry,” Vitalasy apologized. “You’ll need that for the trip. It’s more comfortable to sleep on than the ground, probably. Put it in your inventory?”
Vitalasy had recently taught Prismatics what an inventory was and how to open it. It had required him to use a lot of concentration and imagination, but he had done it. Now, it only took a somewhat shorter amount of time to open it up and put his sleeping bag into it.
“Yours is the dark blue one, got it?” the fox said. “Mine is the orange one and Subz’ is the purple one.” Pris nodded, and Vi prompted him to follow him.
The two went up into Vitalasy’s room, and there, the fox pulled out a box from under his bed. He placed it on the bed and opened it up to reveal clothing. Carefully, he unfolded each one of the items and placed them along the sheets. Prismatics wondered what occasion this was for, and as though he had read his mind, Vitalasy gave him the answer.
“These are for you,” he said. First, he picked up a black cloak that had short sleeves and long ends. It had purple accents along it, and he gave it to Pris to wear.
Next, Vitalasy gave Pris a pair of black shoes with white soles and purple on the edges. The robot slid his metal feet into them.
Lastly, the roommate gave his friend a pair of fingerless gloves that were purple with black.
“Oh, they look so good on you!” Vitalasy said happily. Prismatics bowed his head as a thanks. “No problem! You can wear it whenever you want, not just on the adventure.”
Pris headed for the door, pausing to wave goodbye to Vi. He went into the living room and checked himself out on the reflection of the flatscreen TV. Vitalasy was right: he did look good in these clothes. He was as purple as his roommates now. Despite having no mouth, Pris felt himself smile. They, a trio wearing purple outfits, were about to go onto an adventure together for the first time.
And off they went at eight in the morning on a Wednesday; Vitalasy was skipping, Prismatics was walking, and Subz followed them sleepily. The trio decided to explore the forest behind their house, for Vitalasy had not explored that area often.
It was a lovely day for a walk through the forest. The trees were vibrant and green, and the sky was partly cloudy. They could hear tiny birds chirping among the trees as well as the scurrying of rodents in the bushes. The ground was soft, and there was an occasional breeze in the air.
Pris picked every flower he came by. So far, he had a few daisies and dandelions, and soon, he came by some lilacs. He looked at the flower with curiosity. It stuck out in clusters of tiny,light purple petals. The robot picked two of the lilacs and gave them to his friends, and they appreciated them. Pris then picked another lilac for himself.
Later, the purple trio came across a small pack of wolves. They observed the pack from a distance behind some trees. Despite being a fox hybrid, Vitalasy had no fear of the wolves. He found them to be quite adorable actually.
After the encounter with the canines, they stumbled upon a small river. Subz swore he had made Pris waterproof, but just in case, they avoided having the robot go in through the river. Instead, they followed the river to a shorter spot where all three of them could easily jump over it. Luckily, if they did have to go through the river, the waters were moving calmly anyway.
They spent the night in a small clearing just a bit away from a small flower forest that was home to several tulips and poppies. Subz cooked the raw beef as Vitalasy pulled out some loaves of bread from his inventory. After the meat was cooked, the two made sandwiches for both of them.
When they were finished eating, Vitalasy and Subz took turns telling stories. They weren’t necessarily spooky stories, but most of them were. Pris paid close attention to their stories. Some of them were quite.. interesting.
The last thing they did that night was tuck themselves into their sleeping bag. They didn’t sleep in a tent; they slept under the stars and trees in the open. With the fire put out, it was awfully dark, but Pris’ television screen provided not a lot but a comforting amount of light. The fox, the enderman, and the robot fell asleep as the insects chirped in the night.
Vitalasy paused at the base of a tall, grassy hill. Maybe it was tall enough to be considered a mountain? The fox didn’t know, but what he did know was that he wanted to climb it.
Subz caught up to him and stared up at the hill. He groaned.
“You want to climb that?” he asked, unenthusiastically.
Vitalasy looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Yeah! Come on!” He jumped forward and started the hike up the hill, Prismatics following behind. Subz gritted his teeth and watched them.
“Really? Is there even anything up there??” Subz questioned again.
“Who knows!” Vitalasy called back as he and Pris continued upwards. “We’ll only know once we get there.”
Subz crossed his arms. “Okay, well, then tell me what’s up there when you get there then.” He didn’t know if the two heard him because neither of them replied or looked back, so he stayed put at the foot of the hill.
One leg, two leg. One leg, two leg.
Hiking was easy for Vitalasy. He was always traveling everywhere; he just liked exploring. Everything was so wondrous. He wanted to know all about it all, and staying at home as often as Subz did wouldn’t get him anywhere. Literally.
He looked back to see Prism keeping up with him on their hike. It wasn’t a necessarily difficult path to walk. Vitalasy was just worried that Pris wasn’t built for hiking. Although, the robot did seem perfectly on the ground floor, so he was probably doing alright.
But just to make sure, Vitalasy asked, “How you doing? Are you doing alright with this hike up this hill?”
His friend nodded and gave him a thumbs up. Vi nodded back and returned to walking.
A couple of minutes later, the pair made it to the top just as the sky started to fade into an orange. The only thing on the hill was an oak tree. Vitalasy breathed in the air and strolled over to the tree, sitting down beside it. He looked up Prismatics and patted the grassy spot beside him. The robot blinked and sat on the spot, and Vitalasy and Prismatics watched the golden hour.
The two of them sat in silence, but it was a nice silence. The quietness was refreshing.
But Pris didn’t feel refreshed.
He felt the need to do something, the urge to do something. His system was confused and he closed his eyes to figure out what he was missing. After a few seconds, Pris snapped his eyes open and realized what he wanted to do.
The robot turned his neck towards Vitalasy, who sat to his right, staring at the sunset. He narrowed his eyes in concentration, and Vitalasy noticed this as he looked over at his friend with confusion.
“Pris? What’s up?” the fox asked, tilting his head. Vitalasy observed as Pris held a fist to his chest like he wanted to say something.
And something he spoke.
“Vi… Vital.. a.. sy.”
Vi gaped at Prismatics. Then, he smiled, he laughed, and he put his hand on the robot’s shoulder.
“Prismatics!” the fox hybrid exclaimed. “You said my name! I’m so happy for you.”
Pris blinked in pride.
Just then, the two heard Subz march up to the top of the hill. Vitalasy hopped onto his feet and ran over to his enderman friend.
“Subz!” he said with excitement. “You missed it! Pris said my name.”
The enderman looked at him with disbelief. “He said your name?” Vitalasy nodded violently in response, so Subz looked over at Pris, who was approaching them and giving him a nod as well.
Vitalasy smiled. “Are you ready to head back down?”
“DOWN?” Subz cried out. “I just got here! Give me a few minutes.”
Vitalasy blinked at him.
“Please.”
The demon chuckled. “Since you asked so nicely, okay. Just a few minutes, unless we set up camp here?”
“Camp here would be great,” Subz said, taking out his sleeping bag from his inventory. The other two took out their own resources and made a small camp. There was a fireplace and their sleeping bags as well as some raw food to cook.
Around noon the next day, the trio headed down the hill. Vitalasy took confident steps, Pris took cautious steps, and Subz tripped over the pebbles so many times that they were all surprised that he hadn’t already gone tumbling down the hill.
When they reached the ground, Vitalasy looked around, observing the scenery to decide which way to go next. He saw trees and trees and trees, but among the trees was a mountain in the distance. Thoughtfully, he stared at it for a good minute. Subz saw what Vi was staring at and groaned.
Vitalasy turned his head to him and smiled, saying, “That’s a pretty cool mountain, you know.” Subz frowned, shook his head, and led the way to the mountain without trying to argue. The fox bounded over to walk beside his enderman friend, and Subz just glared at him, scoffing.
“Subz,” Vitalasy began the conversation, “you should be smiling! This is supposed to be a fun adventure, a fun family adventure! Stop being so miserable.”
The enderman stretched his arms up and yawned. “I’m not miserable. I just don’t like your ideas.”
“You have to be optimistic about these things.”
Subz sighed. “Fine.” He placed his hand on the fox’s shoulder. “Vitalasy, as much as I don’t like your ideas, I am enjoying this trip.”
Vitalasy grinned. The demon looked back at Pris, whose eyes were laughing, and Vi laughed back.
Cheerfully, they continued their trip to the mountain, going through bushes and sticks, mud and dirt, and flowers and berries. They kicked and tossed stones around.
As the sun began to set, it turned out that the mountain was a bit farther than Vitalasy had anticipated. The trio decided to set up camp for the night, and the next morning, they moved onwards.
The day was quite uneventful, but Pris was enjoying it the most. He was keeping a look-out for each creature he saw, taking a mental note on what they were, and he also picked every other flower he saw as a souvenir.
At last, they reached the base of the mountain.
The three of them paused to examine what they were about to climb. Subz muttered something under his breath, probably a complaint, while Prismatics tipped his head to one shoulder.
“Hm,” Vitalasy said. “It’s kinda tall.”
Subz looked over at him. “You think?” he asked sarcastically.
Vitalasy looked back at him, and then he started climbing the rocky mountain side. The mountain was steep but not too steep where they had to rock climb all the way to the top.
It was a hard climb to the top even for Vitalasy. The fox, however, was not too wore out compared to his companions. They took at least two breaks on the mountainside, taking a quick drink of water and a bite of a few snacks. The trio hadn’t spoken much words due to tiredness and concentration on reaching the top (not exactly the summit, but the top).
When they reached the flat group of the mountain, it was nighttime, and all of them sat down, except Subz, who decided to lay down on the thin grass, to catch their breaths.
Through their weariness, the three of them pulled out their sleeping bags and went to sleep without speaking. They slept in the silent darkness that night.
The following day, Pris, Subz, and Vitalasy relaxed on the mountain, still sore from the climb. There was a cool breeze flowing against them, and the sky was a lovely blue. The mountain had a mouth that led into a deep cave.
The trio spent a lot of time watching the clouds pass by, describing what each one looked like, as they sat on the grass.
Vitalasy pointed at one fluffy blob. “That one looks like a dinosaur, a T-rex.”
Subz squinted his eyes and stared at the cloud. He nodded when he saw the silhouette of the large head, long tail, and short arms. Tilting his head, he also saw that the cloud looked like a rhinoceros. “It’s also a rhino,” he commented.
In the sky, they saw flowers, pancakes, shoes, and dogs made of clouds. They saw hearts and birds in various sizes and shapes, and they saw apples and bees.
They continued to spend the long yet peaceful morning cloud-watching. There was no need to leave since they had made it to their destination already.
Eventually, Subz got up from sitting on the grass and walked toward the edge of the mountain, admiring the sunset with his hands on his hips. The sky was mostly clear with patches of clouds here and there. His gaze dropped to the forest that sat way below the mountain. He looked at it thoughtfully, only being able to see the very tops of the trees.
Slowly, the enderman approached the cliff to the point where he was standing on the very edge of it. He could see the trees more clearly where he now stood, and he squinted his eyes to see if he could see the grassy floor.
“Subz,” Vitalasy called, “be careful.” Subz waved him off and squatted down. He just really felt the unnecessary need to see the ground. Carelessly, he placed one hand beside him holding the ground and the other over his eyes to block out the orange sun. He leaned every so slightly forward, searching through the treetops for the ground that held them down.
“Subz!” Vitalasy shouted, but his friend ignored him once more.
“Subz, come on.” The enderman could hear the fox and the robot stand up on the grass. “We’re gonna go inside the cave now.”
Reluctantly, Subz stood up and backed away from the edge. He stared into the greenery for a couple of seconds before turning around.
And he tripped over himself, his right foot hitting the back of left heel. Subz stumbled forward but managed to stand his ground. He exhaled deeply and laughed in relief. Looking up, he could see the fear in Vitalasy’s purple eyes.
“Oh my gosh,” he breathed. “Can you, like, get away from there right now before you actually fall?” His tail swished impatiently and worrisomely.
The man stood up straight and brushed his shirt with his hands. “It’s fine,” he said, tapping his foot against the ground lightly. Vitalasy frowned in response. Subz threw his arms out and began walking towards his friends. “See? I’m fine.”
Before he could react, the cliffside that Subz was on crumbled beneath him, and he fell back, grasping the air in panic.
“SUBZ!” Vitalasy screamed.
The last thing the enderman hybrid saw of his friends were their expressions of horror.
Subz could hardly hear anything through the air that failed to catch him. Everything was moving so fast. He couldn’t think clearly, but his gaze snapped towards the dark figure that lunged off the cliff and down towards Subz, reaching out for him.
“PRIS!” Vitalasy shrieked from the distant mountain top.
Shakingly, Subz reached out for Prismatics, the two coming closer together as they both fell down along the mountain. The robot grabbed Subz’ arm and pulled the enderman towards him, wrapping his bronze arms around his friend tightly. Subz hugged him back and closed his eyes; he felt like they were falling somewhat slower now.
“Subz…” Pris spoke softly. Subz’ eyes snapped open, wondering if that was the wind or not.
“Pris..?”
“Subz, I got you.”
Subz felt his heart stir with pride and sadness; he was happy that Pris was talking, but he was saddened at the fact that they were both falling to their possible deaths. Overwhelmed with emotion, he closed his eyes again, light tears falling out of them, and held onto the friend dearly.
They had only met about a few months ago, but he felt as though they had been friends for eternity.
Subz woke up uncomfortably on the grass. His back was in pain and his skin was sore, but he was wrapped in bandages. Gradually, the man pulled himself up into a sitting position, grunting as he held his enderman arm across his body. After sitting, he could see Vitalasy sitting on a rock through the campfire that blazed in between them. The fox didn’t say anything; instead, he watched Subz in silence and with concern.
The enderman blinked his heterochromic eyes and looked over to his left to see Pris laying on his back, damaged and powered off. He suppressed his pain as he crawled beside the robot to check out the damage. He saw dents and scratches on his body. Pris’s clothes were all scratched and torn from the tree branches, and his television screen was cracked. Subz sighed miserably.
Out of the corner of his eye, Subz saw Vitalasy stand up and take a few steps toward him. He turned his head and looked up at the fox, who held a face full of tiredness and anger. Before Subz could ask what was wrong, Vitalasy began to speak.
“They say that ‘curiosity killed the cat’, and you almost died!” he cried out. “What were you thinking? Why would you go so close to the edge, Subz??” His purple eyes blazed with the fire. “You knew we were so high up on a mountain, so why would you go standing on the very edge of it? Are you trying to die?! Look at the damage you did!” Vitalasy threw his hands toward the sleeping robot.
Subz couldn’t meet Vitalasy’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I just- I just didn’t think the ground would break underneath me.”
Vitalasy growled. “And you decided to play with Death, and you almost destroyed both you and Pris! Why- why can’t you-” He grimaced and his voice trembled. “You were almost the one to break Pris. You almost broke him, Subz! You thought I’d be the one, but no! It was you. It was you…”
The enderman looked up to see Vitalasy’s gaze soften and then shatter. The fox dropped down onto his knees in front of Subz and Prismatics. He wrapped his tail and arms around himself and started crying. Under the salty tears, he spoke, “I almost lost you. I almost lost both of you. My two friends… You almost died.”
Subz felt his heart break. He reached out for his friend, murmuring, “Vitalasy…”
The fox lifted his head ever so slightly and saw Subz’ hand. He shuffled himself closer to him, grabbed his shirt, and sobbed into it.
Subz was too sad to feel the physical pain of his body; his emotions overpowered his injuries. He wrapped his arms around the demon, solemn. He closed his eyes and listened to the loud sobs that soaked his clothes. “Oh, Vitalasy.. I’m so sorry.”
Vitalasy didn’t say anything as his sobbing softened.
“I’ll be more careful next time, I promise,” Subz murmured.
“Please,” the fox said, barely more than a whisper.
For the rest of the night, Vitalasy laid in Subz’ arms and the enderman held him dearly despite how wet his shirt was. The fox eventually fell asleep, face stained with tears, yet Subz didn’t move. He didn’t feel right moving, so he stayed where he was until he also fell asleep.
Subz woke up to find himself in the same sitting position as the previous night. He felt somewhat sore still from the fall. Vitalasy was no longer laying in his arms; the fox was slowly rolling up the sleeping bag he had allowed Subz to use. The enderman didn’t question anything as he stood up very gradually to greet him with a small wave. Vitalasy glanced at him and smiled a little, but the smile quickly faded as his gaze drifted away.
They both looked over at the robot that was powered off. Subz breathed and opened his mouth ever so slightly.
“Let’s go home,” he said wearily, and Vitalasy nodded.
Vitalasy gently lifted Prismatics up, and Subz knelt down so that the fox could place the robot on his back. Vitalasy shook his head.
“No, I need you to put him on my back,” Vi said. Subz frowned.
“But I’m able to carry him,” Subz argued.
“You’re injured,” the fox insisted. “At least for now, let me carry him.”
Subz sighed and nodded. Vitalasy placed Pris in the enderman’s arms. He turned around and knelt down as Subz placed the robot onto the back of the fox. Cautiously, Vitalasy stood up.
The demon dipped his head, and Subz nodded in return.
They headed back home, following the safest routes and pathways as possible. They occasionally stopped for some food and also to pass Pris between themselves, taking turns on who was carrying him. During the trip back, they camped the night out once.
The fox and the enderman hardly spoke during their journey back. They didn’t have much to say to each other anyway.
Reaching their house, it was sunset. Vitalasy went in front of Subz, who was carrying the robot at this time, to open the door so that his friend could walk through with Prismatics dangling on his back. Vitalasy closed the door behind them as Subz went through the hallway and down the staircase. In the basement, he gently placed Pris onto his chair and took a step back to look at the slumped robot.
Sighing, the man left the basement and went to his room. As he went in, he could hear Vitalasy in his own room getting ready to go to bed.
The enderman kicked off his boots, took off his cloak and belt, and stretched his arms upwards. He winced as pain quickly washed in and out of his body. Subz threw himself onto his bed, not bothering to pull his sheets up to cover himself. In a couple of minutes, he was asleep.
A day of restless repairs was how long it took for Subz to fix up his robotic friend to make him look as new as possible. He was tired from the long hours of work with hardly any breaks, but he was glad he had done it. The enderman propped Prismatics into a standing position, and then he examined the robot once more before calling Vitalasy over. He knew the fox was waiting upstairs anxiously. Stepping back, Subz looked up and down at the robot from head to toes for a final checkup.
Satisfied, Subz cleared his throat. “Vitalasy!” he called. He watched the staircase and waited patiently. A few minutes later, he saw Vitalasy slowly walk down the stairs; he quickened his steps when he saw Prismatics standing there, powered-off. Vitalasy walked past Subz and stood in front of the robot, staring into the blank screen.
“He’s fixed,” Subz smiled. “Tell me when you’re ready so I can turn him on.”
The demon glanced over at Subz and looked back at Pris. He swallowed and then smiled back at his enderman friend.
“I’m ready,” Vitalasy said, his tail swishing back and forth.
“Alright then.” Subz stepped behind the robot. He took the yellow cable and plugged it into his TV head. He gave the machine a few seconds before inputting the green cable in. After another couple of seconds, Subz picked up the red cable and plugged it in with care. He stepped back and observed both the robot’s and Vitalasy’s movements.
Vitalasy had stopped moving his tail, his body filling up with anticipation and hope. Nothing was happening to Pris; he stood there, unmoving, but Subz and Vitalasy continued to wait.
And after several minutes, the screen of Prismatics turned on.
“Prismatics!” Vitalasy cried, immediately throwing himself at the robot for a hug, tears of happiness flowing from his eyes. “You’re okay.”
Pris hugged back. “I am. I am okay, Vitalasy.”
Vitalasy pulled away from Pris, gaping. “You can talk!” he exclaimed.
The robot blinked. “I can talk?” he echoed in confusion. His face lit up in realization. “I can talk! Thank you so much, Subz.” Pris smiled with his eyes.
“You’re welcome, Pris,” Subz responded, adding, “and Vitalasy.”
The fox laughed. He pulled Subz in, and he wrapped his other arm around Pris. “This is incredible! We’re gonna have so much more fun now. Thank you, Subz, again for building Pris so willingly.”
Subz grinned. “Like I said, you have good ideas sometimes, and this is your best one yet.” Vitalasy barked in pride.
The enderman was glad that they were all happy again. It was only a few days ago that the worst had happened to all of them, and Subz was glad that he was able to bring the joy and happiness back to them.
They were a trio of friends in purple, and purple was how they felt.