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"Why are you crying, Leafy?" said Pin.
"I saw this object show and... WAAAAH!"
"Just tell me what happened! I will try to make it better!"
"It's just that... I don't want them to be stuck on the plane and I don't want Airy to die or Charlotte to be covered in mold and Texty ran out of battery and I just..."
"So you must have watched ONE! Do not worry! None of these people are real!"
"They are," said Leafy. "And I must find them."
"But where will I find them?" said Leafy. "I know! How about the Clubhouse of Awesomeness!" she said, eating a yoyleberry. "Wow, I sure do love yoyleberries."
And then Leafy was in there, dancing wildly to Intensive BFDI Unit in the strobing rainbow lights as the video played on the clubhouse TV.
Little did she know there was some exposed wiring. She was still in her YTPMV-induced euphoria when she tripped on the wires, and they shocked her metallic body all the way through.
No one knew she was dead.
---
"...Where am I?" Leafy looked around the blank area and noticed a radio next to her, with extremely long frequencies. She was in her leaf form again.
Suddenly, a golden, slightly oozy pathway opened up below her, sending her down it like a wavering slide. At the end of the path, she noticed a scarf-length scroll, written in multi-colored, sweet-smelling ink and labeled with the header, "ALL the Fun Frequencies - for YOU!"
"Are those...?"
She looked at the final one, and it was marked with the most important denotation of all, "Party Time!"
But using that one first seemed wrong. She had to use them all to get the most out of this magical purgatory, and she grew huge, shimmering wings of yoyle-steel feathers as she flew back to the universe modulator, which was suddenly showered with rainbow glitter as giant cupcakes floated around her.
"Well, here it goes," said Leafy, tuning to the first correct frequency seemingly effortlessly.
---
Leafy entered through a curtain of tickly bubbles, and found that this world seemed to be totally bubbly! Oh noio, she wished she was still Bubble's friend, but she saved that for another time and bounced onto a bubble, and another one, and another one.
A cloud of rain poured itself down onto Leafy, but she leaned into into the waves of bloopy water. Then, a whoosing windstorm crashed in and tore Leafy to shreds. But it was alright.
She was back at the waiting room, and the next frequency was ready for her.
But what was also ready was a bullet train covered in branches, vines and light tubes, labeled the Leafy Express. It had a slot to insert the receipt, and it swallowed it all, making energetic “nom-nom” noises.
“All aboard!” chanted Leafy, hopping on and pretending to tug at a whistle.
She noticed someone else waiting around, a moss-green backpack sitting in a pile of the gooiest marshmallows. Leafy reached her long arm out the window and pulled him into the train. "Oh, you look like you could use a hug!" Leafy squeezed him in a tight hug. "Who are you, anyway?"
"I'm Liam, and I ended up here again. I need to get home."
"Well, this is a party train, and you're sure to have fun here!" The train left behind a trail of bubble-gum bubbles as it powered through the multiversal chaos, blasting into a volcanic landscape. Leafy realized soon that it was not lava spewing from the mountains, but slime! Liam, while skeptical at first, was fully engulfed in the energy as he and Leafy leaped out together, grabbing wacky confetti-spewing taffy rafts and riding them down - and up - the slime flows with other silly objects cheering them on. The belching smoke tasted like cotton candy.
"Wow, where did you find this place?" asked Liam.
"Let's just say... it found me." And the Leafy Express spiraled down a slime tunnel into a buried forest, deciduously insulated. The heat blanket was heavy yet comforting, and vines with the most vibrant protrusions ever swung above Leafy and Liam.
"Look!" yelled Leafy as she walked out. "There's a Fractalflower!"
Liam marveled at the shimmering gamboge blossom forming into infinite mandelbrots. "Yeah! And there's a Smoochey Plant!" He pointed to a giant, thorned stalk supporting a cobalt flower-bud on top, and it bent down to kiss his forehead, making him giggle.
There was a stacked flower that bloomed like a pagoda, and some springy-vines that moved on their own. They all seemed to be releasing giggles and glitter into the air, and Leafy and Liam danced through them.
"Okay, on we go!" said Leafy as her and Liam got back on the leafy train. It plunged into a giant computer, and they parachuted out onto the fields of Windows XP. Both Leafy and Liam summoned window-like kites that drifted through the crisp air. They climbed into folders, floated through the void with 3D FlowerBox, and when they were finally back at the fields, Liam pulled out a shovel.
"I wonder what's down there!" He dug straight down, despite being given explicit instructions not to do so.
And Leafy and Liam broke into the world inside the computer, dancing across the glistening computer chips and circuits, zip-lining down the wires into raw data. The "Tada" noise sounded as the Leafy Express picked them up again, and slid them out through a USB port.
They swirled through a bunch of other worlds, then Liam turned to Leafy. "I think... I know you from somewhere."
"Yeah?"
"Not physically, but I watched a show with you in it. And... I felt so bad for you. Just as bad as I feel for a former friend."
"Oh? Who's that?"
"...He did awful things, kind of like you did. But I think he could be just like you. Unfortunately, he was destroyed before he could find out."
"Don't worry!" Leafy smiled widely. "I have a feeling he is still around somewhere!" And Leafy wasn't just saying this. She knew that "party time" designator on the list was related to him. "And I think we'll find it after we go here!"
Leafy and Liam floated on balloons out of the Leafy Express, looking down on the many water slides, seeming to brim with pancake syrup instead of water. The balloons popped above a dark bouncy house, and they both sproinged out of it into a lemon-yellow spiraled tubular slide. They then splashed through the syrup of a black slide with an open top, a cloudy white slide that was less curvy than the yellow one but still tube-shaped, and finally, a whirlpooling blue slide opening into a sticky funnel.
Liam held onto Leafy as they plummeted through the darkness.
---
They landed in an area like Airy's home, but... different? Instead of water, it was sweet soda that gushed out into the river. Leafy could see a note floating through it with an extra-long frequency on it; clearly no codes could get lost in there! The trees were gone as well, replaced with piles of cotton candy and glitter. The rocks were either of rainbow crystals or rock candy that greatly resembled them. A gleeful popcorn cart drifted by, appearing to be working infinitely.
And there, in the middle of it all, was Airy. Leafy knew he didn't have to be shattered forever! It didn't matter how he found the codes (may have been from Leafy's scroll), but he was right there, it was real and him. Even better, he had a sparkly party hat on and was drinking a peanut butter cup Route 44 milkshake. Did he make it happen? Or was it the grace and majesty of Leafy that helped? She didn't know, but Leafy couldn't help but smile as bubbles moved through the neon tubes on the bright jukebox that was playing "New Friendly" next to him.
"Why does no one ever want to visit me here? I just want to have a party!" Airy said it so happily that Leafy almost forgot what he had done to the contestants.
"Well, I want to see you! Trapping them may have been a big misunderstanding, but well, you can always take them back!"
"...Leafy? Is that you? Like, the real you?"
"I...guess?"
"I based my object show off yours," said Airy. "You were always my favorite contestant. I enjoyed your willingness to keep going, and to make things right." He wiped his eye. "You remind me... of me. And it was not just a misunderstanding what I did; it was awful for them."
"But dying forever won't make it better for anyone! Watch this!" Leafy pranced over to Airy's computer, and she grasped it in her hands. The sparkles flowed through, allowing it to work again and recreating the connection to the Plane.
"You move, and I send!" announced Leafy. And with a click for each one, every contestant that had ever been part of his plans was in Airy's domain. Folder got a new life as a physical digital assistant, and Charlotte was absent all mold. Even the ones that had lives in the "real" world seemed ecstatic to be there, as the glowing party world outweighed a boring reality.
"Well, that's... one way to do it!" Airy blushed as Liam hugged Bryce, who filled himself up with the flowing soda.
"Wait, I almost forgot!" Leafy opened up Texty's laptop and barfed up a glowing green crystal, then attached it to the laptop. "Now you are charged forever!" Texty texted a smiley face.
"I... I wish I never took all that time from you. If I could take the pain from your memories, I would." Airy was about to break down.
"This world is already making it drift away," said Amelia. "Did you design it yourself?"
"Well, it is awesome, but I know an even more awesome place!" shouted Leafy. "Let's go to Yoyleland all together!" She got out the Yoyleland map again, and they all chanted together as they went through the map.
---
A wave of balloons greeted their entrance to Yoyleland. All the ONE contestants were now wearing party hats designed in their own image - even Texty had one on their laptop with lines of code printed on it - and the BFDI cast was there to shout "SURPRISE!"
"So you were real this whole time!" remarked Tennis Ball.
"You're a fan?" said Airy.
"Of course I am! Here, have this." He put a "#1 Party Host" medal around Airy's neck.
"Do you guys wanna go bounce with me?" said Bubble, pointing to the Yoylecake bouncy castle.
"I thought you didn't like me!" said Leafy.
"Can't we put all that happened in BFDI behind us and go play?" Bubble grabbed Leafy's hand and led her off to the castle, and Charlotte and Amelia were happy to follow. They joyously backflipped through the springy cake. Meanwhile, Foldy was trying to shake Folder's digital hand, Bryce and Bottle were grabbing popcorn together, and Naily was introducing Owen to some nail puns. Ruby and Julien slipped together down a taffy slip and slide. The Goiky Canal turned into chocolate syrup, and Lollipop and Alice munched up the waves. Bomby threw yoyle-flavored glowing paint onto Subway Seat, who really accentuated his own patterns with it. Even Evil Leafy took Circle for a rousing game of Get To The Top Although There Is No Top. The Yoyle Jukebox played a joyous supercharged remix of Airy's favorite song with Two's - including a couple Pan Flute interpolations.
"Okay, it's time for the Mirror Dance!" said Airy. A disco ball shaped like Airy descended from the sky, held up by what could have easily been Bell's string.
Abstracty morphed into a clone of Marker and spun around with him, not to mock but to play. Their impression was much different. "I'm Marker! Aren't I so silly and cute?"
"...In fact, I am!"
"I can even be purple!"
Marker laughed at the idea of a purple version of him, since he had always been green. Meanwhile, Liam danced along with the version of him on TV's screen.
Suddenly, Stone threw a shower of confetti sticky notes in the middle of everything, with a glitter gel pen letter on each one. "EVERYTHING IS REAL! YOU HAVE ALL THE CONTROL!" they said. One's bubble machine accentuated it all, and Pan Flute played a joyous tune on Bassy.
In the middle of a exploding pie-throwing contest, Airy stood up. "I have something to say. I am deeply sorry for all the trouble I have caused my contestants. If anyone wants to go home to the real world, Leafy will put you back just fine, right?"
"Yeah, the Yoylite has a really powerful effect! It can even make a patchwork timeline where you never went away in the first place."
"And if any one of them wants to end me forever... please do!"
Whippy Creamy held up Firey Jr. and lit Airy's lamp. But that didn't destroy him; it brought out his inner light and made him suddenly hyperactive. "I LOVE ALL THESE OBJECTS WITH ALL MY OIL CHAMBER, AND YOU KNOW WHAT IS UNNEEDED? THE PLANE!"
He snapped his fingers, and in the other world, the Plane exploded in a giant burst of streamers and party horns.
And as the Route 44 shakes flowed and the springy shoes sprung in the waves of rainbow lights and glitter, the energy of the explosion collapsed into Yoyleland, making a blast of fireworks that spelled "PARTY TIME FOREVER!"