Work Text:
Essie hated days where she wasn’t scheduled on set.
Well, hate was kind of too far. Those days were for school, and though it was barely anything like being on set, Essie liked school just fine. She was pretty good at it (almost all S’s on her report card except an A in science), she got to watch tapes like SchoolHome Pop! and Will Dye the Science Guy, and Mike would do physical challenges with her to mix up the note taking and worksheets.
The problem came whenever the school day was finished. It only ever lasted a couple hours, and by the time she had nothing left to work on, Daddy would still have a butt load of recording left to do. And because of how the schedule worked, even if Essie wanted to, there was nothing for her to do on stage. No movies, no intros, no outros, nothing.
Instead, all the extras not working that day were supposed to keep her entertained. Daddy would come check on her in-between recordings, but other than that, it meant hours of Pippins and Shadowguys asking questions. Do you wanna play a game, Essie? Oh, you’re bored? Do you wanna play a different game? Do you wanna color? Want us to ask Ramb to fix you a snack, Essie?
What she wanted was to either go on stage with Daddy, make her Movie Night segment come early that week, or for recording to end early, and none of that was happening.
So, after she asked her babysitters for that day if they could go and get some popcorn, Essie did the next best thing: she got up and snuck out of the Green Room.
The halls of TV Time Studios usually felt so squished. Actors and extras and assistants and the tech crew always bustling in and out of changing rooms, squeezing around her and Daddy as they rushed on to set. Daddy always held her hand as they hurried around during the work day, his attention divided between her and any number of people with clipboards jogging alongside him.
But right now, with everybody off where they were supposed to be, the studio felt empty for the first time Essie could remember.
The hallways weren’t actually squished at all, it turned out. With nobody else running around, and with ceilings even taller than Daddy, Essie felt like she was sneaking around a castle. She peered around corners, giggling and humming the Mission: Improbable theme as she jumped from wall to wall. The muffled stage music playing through the walls only added to the fantasy. She wasn’t just Essie, exploring what was basically her house for the first time ever. No, she was an international super spy (whatever “international” meant), trying to figure out which of these doors was the right one for her mission.
Each one she passed wasn’t it. They were all on the way to her and Daddy’s rooms, so she saw them every day. Even if she was curious about what was hiding behind them, Essie imagined they were probably all locked. If they weren’t, someone could easily come along and catch her, and she was not about to get dragged back to the Green Room this soon. She’d been down this hallway plenty of times, but just down the corridor was new territory.
The lights were dimmed this far back, painting the yellow and blue tiles with a layer of grey. Essie’s skipping slowed to a walk. She paused beside the Rank Desk, but of course, there was nobody there. Contestants couldn’t come get their prizes until each round was over, and she imagined this one still had at least ten more minutes.
Essie's ears perked at the sound of panicked yelling sounding through the halls; she guessed her babysitters had come back already. She frowned at the sound, almost turning back toward the Green Room before stopping herself. Did she want them to worry over where she went? No. Did she want to abandon the mission when she was so close? Even bigger no. It wouldn't take long, after all. Just a look at what was around this corner, and then she'd go back.
Inhaling, Essie darted into the hallway. The darkness somehow increased, almost swallowing up her shadow.
Every other room in the studio shined with warm light; even at nighttime, whenever she walked through the halls for a glass of water or to go into Daddy's room, nightlights twinkled like stars on every wall.
This place didn't look like light had touched it in ages. Squinting through the shadows, Essie couldn't even see a light switch hiding anywhere.
Her nose tickled before she let out a sneeze. Dust, she realized. Daddy couldn't stand dust. She'd heard him tell the janitors all about it more than once. Curiously, she tapped her feet against the floor, watching clouds of the stuff fly around her ankles.
Nobody had been back here in a long time, Essie thought to herself. A smile grew on her face. She really was finding something new! It was just like that Invaders of the Lost Arc movie Asriel rented last week, except she wasn't in a cave and no one's face was melting off. That was the only thing that would have made this cooler.
Except, maybe, for what Essie finally noticed just a few feet ahead: a cracked open door, covered in cobwebs and peeling paint.
A secret room.
-------
"You LOST my daughter?!"
Today had been going so well for Tenna. This group of contestants had been such good sports, going along with every puzzle and physical challenge like a dream. Hardly any need for outtakes or getting on their cases, and for the first time in a while, they managed to wrap filming early.
He'd been so eager to bring everyone back to the Green Room to toast to a job well done, then spend the rest of the evening with his little shining star.
Then he'd stepped off set, and everything went to shit.
Tenna towered over the quivering gaggle of extras he'd trusted to watch Essie, claws half bared around his screen. One of them, a Pippins, gulped and said, "W-we just looked away for a second, sir, really! We went to go make her some popcorn, and when we turned around, s-she was--"
"All four of you had to go do that?" Tenna snapped. "One of you couldn't have kept an eye on her, hm?"
They glanced amongst themselves, looking like they wanted to recede into the floor. The Pippins replied, "She, uh, she said the popcorn was on a real high shelf, boss, so all four of us would have to go to reach it..."
Tenna inhaled, clasping his hands together tightly. "Gentlemen," he said through gritted teeth. "Do you have any idea how precious Essie is to me?"
He continued before any of them could answer. "She is the greatest treasure of my entire life. When I ask any of you to watch her, I expect you to act like she's the greatest treasure of your lives too. Do you think letting her wander off in a studio, which by the way, is full of any number of dangerous equipment, is doing that? Do you?"
The four practically clung to each other with every word, eyes wide and bodies shivering.
"Oi, Tenna, lay off, would you?"
Tenna's head whipped around to the bar. Ramb stood at his usual perch, wiping out a glass. "Essie waited 'til they were gone to leave the room. She was trying to shake 'em on purpose. No need for all that blustering, luv."
"What?"
Tenna marched over to the bar, bracing his hands against the countertop. "You're telling me you watched her leave and you just-- didn't do anything?" His claws dug grooves into the wood. "What in the hell is wrong with you, Ramb?!"
The bartender, infuriatingly, only shrugged. "She's 7 years old, Tenna. Only natural to wanna explore and have some fun on your own at her age. Doesn't need to have a bunch of blokes breathing down her neck all day."
"I pay those 'blokes' to make sure she has fun and stays safe! What if she gets into something she's not supposed to and gets hurt?" Tenna demanded. "Is that your idea of 'fun,' Ramb?"
"'Course not, luv," Ramb replied. He looked back to the glass, running the rag around the inside. "Just saying you can't entirely blame 'em for something Essie wanted to do herself. Can't really blame the poor thing for doing it either. I mean, stuck with the same people, playing the same game for hours and hours? Little luv must be bored to tears."
"Oh." Tenna barked out a humorless laugh. "I see what this is about. Endanger my little girl to prove a point. It's one thing to run your mouth about Kris, but this? This is lower than I thought you could go, Ramb."
Ramb stared at him, unimpressed. "Take it however you like. Doesn't change that you know I'm right."
Tenna, much to his irritation, internally winced. No, he didn't know that... not to the extent this little know-it all clearly thought he did, at least. But he did know that Essie always had a touch of disappointment on her face every morning of every school day. That very afternoon, he'd expected her to leap off the couch and barrel into his legs, the same way she always did after a few hours with babysitters.
But that was normal, Tenna had thought. She just missed her dad after being away all day, that was all! And sure, maybe playing games could get a little old after a while, but wasn't it better than sitting around a set where she had nothing to do? He knew all about child stars and how screwy-louie they could get when they didn't have normal, well-adjusted childhoods. That's all Tenna was trying to do. Doing right by his daughter.
It didn't mean Ramb's words weren't burning in his audio inputs. Just as they always did whenever he put Kris' name in his mouth.
Tenna forced his voice to remain steady. "You," he said, leveling a finger at Ramb, "are not actually a toy, much less a parent. I keep you around because, for some ungoshly reason, you make Kris happy. I do not keep you around for you to tell me about my daughter and what's best for her. So: how about you kindly hop off your high horse and tell me where she went?"
Ramb stared at him with that stupid, almost permanently smarmy expression. Then he huffed under his breath, jutting a thumb toward the rightmost hallway. "Saw her head through that door. Loads of danger to get up to in a bunch of locked dressing rooms for sure."
Tenna opted to ignore Ramb's sarcasm in favor of relief. Oh, thank goodness. In all likelihood, Essie had just gone back to her room, probably to play with some of her toys until filming wrapped. There wasn't anything around there she could get into, even if she wanted to. Just private quarters, locked rank rooms, and...
Tenna sucked in a breath. He felt his circuits go cold as his heart dropped to his feet.
She wouldn't go there. Would she? Its little corner was dark and dingy and clogged with dust and entirely unappealing, nothing at all like the candy-colored lights and sounds Tenna knew children loved so much.
But children also loved mystery. None more so than Essie, who must have seen so many foreboding, unknown doors in movies and TV in her short life already.
And if she saw somewhere she'd never been before, with no one to guide her away from it...
"No," Tenna murmured, voice tinged with a whimper. He rushed toward the door with barely any input to his legs. "No no no no..."
"Boss?" One of the extras called, but Tenna didn't have time to bother with any of them. Please let her be in her room, Tenna's own room, anywhere but there.
"Essie!" Tenna called into the empty hall, trying and failing to force the panic from his voice. "Essie!"
-----
Essie had been expecting some wondrous surprise when she entered the secret room. Something like a super special prize for the rare contestants that managed to win a T-rank. (After all, she couldn't remember anyone ever doing it, so it made sense a store room for the prize would get all dusty.)
But there was nothing of the kind.
The wallpaper was peeling, crumbling plaster falling to the chipped tiles like the snow outside. The lights on the ceiling were all burnt out or busted, tinged black around the bulb. There was a spot in the corner with lighter strips on the wall and floor that reminded Essie of a bed. But there was no furniture in there, and otherwise, she couldn't tell if there ever had been.
The only items of interest on the ground had been a pile of broken glass pooling under a mirror frame; not too far away was a black landline phone, its plastic cracked like someone had busted it on the floor. When Essie brought the receiver to her ear, only dead air came through.
Any disappointment was overshadowed when she looked up at the only colorful things left in the room.
Essie gasped, running up to the faded poster and barely bothering to ignore the glass. It was Daddy! Posters of him were plastered all over the studio, but she'd never seen this one before. He looked about the same as he did now; dressed in his red suit, holding his microphone and beaming at the camera, just like he always did on TV Time. No shorter than usual, but maybe a little skinnier. As far as Essie could tell, he didn't have the tummy that Daddy did now.
But it was the person standing next to him that really caught her eye.
Essie had never seen him before. He was a heck of a lot shorter than Daddy, the way pretty much everyone was, but he didn't seem to mind. His head was held high, a wide grin on his face, one hand in the air and the other on his hip like he owned his half of the poster and knew it.
In all her life, Essie had never seen anyone besides herself, not even Lanino and Elnina or Mike, posing on a poster with Daddy.
Nor had she ever seen anyone wear the exact same suit as Daddy. Or anyone else with fluffy black hair and round, rosy red cheeks.
Essie stared up at the poster with widened eyes. She was a little short of breath and wasn't sure why. Maybe from all the dust?
The glass clinked under her shoes as she took a step forward. A pale hand, the same color as the stranger's in the picture, reached out to rest over his face.
"Essie!!"
A pair of warm, familiar arms scooped her up before she got the chance.
------
"Oh, my little darling!"
Tenna held Essie to his chest, a hand on her head as he pressed a kiss into her hair. "I came into the Green Room, and everyone told me you just disappeared! I was worried sick!"
"Daddy!" Essie exclaimed, a sound that never failed to make Tenna's heart go soft. She wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling against his collar. "I thought you were up on stage still?"
"We finished up a little early today--" Tenna's words died in a gasp when he spotted the glass directly below them. "Oh my god-- sweetheart, are you okay, are you hurt? Did you cut yourself??"
"Huh?" Essie glanced down at her feet, legs absently kicking in the air. "Hmm... nope, I'm okay."
Tenna exhaled with relief. "Thank goodness... Essie, what in the world were you thinking? I know TV is supposed to be fun, but the studio is not a playground!" He filed away the thought of building her an actual one for later. "You could have gotten lost or seriously hurt yourself!"
Essie wilted under Tenna's words. She frowned, shuffling a bit in his arms and bunching her dress between her fingers.
"... I'm sorry, Daddy," she replied after a moment. "I wasn't trying to scare you, or anybody else. It just always takes so long for you to get off work, and everybody else is nice, but it's boring just waiting for you when I'm done with school, so I just wanted to get up and do something else for a second until you got back. I was gonna go back in a minute, really!"
Tenna drew in his lip at the word "boring." Damn you for being right, Ramb.
"But then, this room is really weird and kinda cool, so I just took a little longer..."
Tenna's screen blinked.
This room had been at the forefront of his thoughts the entire time he ran through the hall. Begging that Essie wouldn't be in there, that she'd just be in her room, that he wouldn't find that door open again. Then he saw her standing in the shadows, and the room itself was abandoned in favor of his daughter, his precious darling, and making certain that she was okay.
But now she'd reminded him where they were.
The dust had only gotten heavier since Tenna had been here last. Essie had been there too, but she'd only been the size of a jelly bean. She'd been the reason he'd gone back in the first place. One last call, one final try, hinging on the desperate thought that this time he would pick up the phone and--
"Daddy?" Essie took the opportunity to break the silence. A little finger pointed at the poster in front of them. "Who's that guy?"
No, no, please no, Tenna found himself pleading to someone, anyone. Not like this. He'd never wanted it to manifest at all, but especially not like this. The subject of so many bad dreams and late night spirals, unfolding before his very eyes. The one where he had to tell his little angel this was your other daddy, and he's not here anymore, and no, sweetheart, I don't know where he is, because he left us and he never came back.
Dust gathered in Tenna's vents. His processor ran hotter, tubes crackling with electricity, heart picking up speed in his chest. He held Essie more snugly without meaning to, staring dead ahead at that mocking smile.
Don't make me do this. Who was he asking? You already broke my heart, don't break our– my daughter's too. She wouldn't have even had to see this if you just stuck around. It wouldn’t be like this. You could have watched her. You could have been here. You were supposed to be here–
"Daddy?"
Tenna started when a hand gently patted his screen. He drew in a shaking breath, looking down to see Essie staring at him with upturned brows. "Where did you go?"
Even as his processor struggled to catch up to the present, Tenna felt his screen burn with the threat of tears. That worry had only entered her voice because of him. Not the room, not the poster, but because of his reaction.
She hadn't noticed anything was off, then. Hadn't seemed to put two-and-two together. Anything she found out next would have to come from him. The ugly, horrible truth of it all.
Maybe it was inevitable. His closest confidants had told him as much over the years. She'll find out on her own one day anyway, Mr. Tenna. Better to just rip it off like a bandaid.
But there was no guarantee she'd find out. No one had so much as uttered his name in years. Even standing here, literally staring him right in the face, she was still too young to piece it together. With enough care, maybe she never would.
Tenna had always disliked that stupid bandaid simile. Ripping off a bandaid still hurts, no matter how quickly you do it. And why put a bandaid over skin without a wound, then rip it off right after? Senseless cruelty, that's what that was.
No. Tenna refused to put her through that, not even for a second.
"Where did I go?" He parroted her with a smile. "I've been standing here with you the whole time, you little silly."
To Tenna's relief, Essie's own smile returned right away. "I know you were here here, but you had your thinking screen on."
"Did I now? Gotta say, I didn't even notice! You are one perceptive cookie, my dear."
Essie blew a puff of air through her lips. "Did you really gotta think that hard about who that guy is? You're in the picture too, Daddy."
"Ah..." Tenna quietly swallowed, adjusting Essie in his arms. "Well, darling..."
He stared the faded visage down. Somewhere out there, that little freak probably had brand spanking new posters hung up on every street corner. Flashing that million watt smile, swindling dozens of others, probably thinking nothing of what he'd left behind.
Tenna's resolve hardened with his expression. "... that's nothing but old news. Nothing for anyone to worry about anymore. Least of all you."
Tenna turned away from the poster and didn't look back. Instead, he smiled down at his daughter, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Before she could ask any more questions, he said, "I'm so sorry you were bored enough to wander off into this grody place. Tell you what, starshine: maybe you should come on set after school from now on."
Essie gasped, her face lightning up the room. "Really?! You mean it? Even if I don't have anything to record?"
"You bet I mean it, starshine; there's still lots of ways to help out, recording or not!" Tenna enthused. "Even if you're just sitting around picking out tapes for Movie Night, it'll be something new every day!
For a moment, he'd considered just enlisting different babysitters. But Mike was needed on set at all times, as were Elnina and Lanino. Ramb obviously couldn't be trusted, that spiteful little shit.
No, Tenna decided. This was clearly the best for everyone. Essie certainly seemed to agree.
"Thank you, Daddy!!" She cheered, hugging him around the neck and nuzzling his screen. Her hair came away buzzing with static electricity, strands of it clinging to his face. Then she squinted at him. "You're not gonna fire those guys ‘cause of me, are you?"
"Fire them?" Tenna let out a laugh, as though he hadn't been planning to do just that ten minutes ago. "Of course not, you little angel!" He leaned in, holding a hand near his mouth and stage-whispering, "But I might have them bring us our supper to make up for it."
Essie giggled with delight. Just like that, Tenna knew all was well again. He'd figure out the logistics of having her on set every day later. If that was what kept her safe and happy, he'd rework any number of things. Put that little pip-pip in your pipe and smoke it, Ramb.
They left the room behind without another word about it. There was only one sign they'd ever been there at all: one small pair of footprints entering, one large pair coming and going.
-----
WORK ORDER REQUEST
NAME: Mr. Ant Tenna
ROLE: Your BOSS!!
REQUEST DESCRIPTION:
New renovations incoming, folks! Please kindly block off that old, smelly, DUSTY piece of work at the end of the Rank Hall! From now on, it will be reserved only for contestants who spectacularly fail in the most embarrassing, humiliating ways possible! Slap a big old Z on the door, but that's it! Don't waste points doing anything else!
ABSOLUTELY NO ENTRY TO ANYONE WHO DOES NOT OBTAIN THIS RANK. CAST AND CREW OF ANY KIND INCLUDED.
Get to it, folks!
SIGNATURE: Mr. Ant Tenna