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“Kris! …Enjoy the games, heh, luv?”
Ramb, half-stoned, watched Kris get on the stage to play their last game. Backstage, Ramb could still see the kid play, but stuck as he was, he knew he couldn’t hope to join them later on. He probably didn’t have much time left.
He sighed. To be half petrified was far from comfortable. It was dark, and he could still hear the muffled noises of the game Kris was playing from where he stood. It was quite calming, truly, but honestly, when he came to TV World, this wasn’t how he imagined himself to die. Alone.
“He never really fit in”, as the others liked to say.
I guess we should never wish for too much.
He tried to get closer from the wall by pushing the floor with his not-yet paralysed foot to allow his back to rest, but failed. He was way too weak, or too tired, to correctly move the statue side of his body. Worse, all he was able to do was to make himself fall. His head violently hit the ground, and while he was already very pathetic beforehand, he could now only make anyone who saw him like this pity him.
At least, he would probably already be fully petrified when the others would find him.
But would anybody ever find him? Everybody was gone, they ran away when they had the chance. Maybe some stayed to steal the interesting stuff of the studio, but there were no objects of real worth in here.
He really was about to die alone then, huh.
He closed his eyes, and…
“What are you doing here?”
Someone. Someone familiar, even. Though he could not turn his head, he heard step noises getting closer, while staying at a reasonable distance. Yes, he could recognize the pippins who regularly came to see him, only to never order anything. The one who hated Ramb from the bottom of his soul.
“What are you doing on the ground?”
It was too dark for the dice to be able to see that the plug was already half stone.
“We’re all working like dogs to calm Mr.Tenna and find the lightners, and YOU, you lay on the ground only to do nothing? What a joke.”
“I know, mate. Would you be so kind to help me get back up? I’m a little bit stuck.”
“I’m sure you don’t need my help for that. Stop thinking people just must help you whenever you ask for it.”
“I’m sorry, but… I really can’t. You see, I'm a little bit petrified right now.”
“What?”
There was silence. The pippins got slowly closer to Ramb, and saw for himself Ramb’s… Disability. From where he stood, the plugboy could not clearly see the dice’s reaction.
Suddenly, the pippins got on his knees, slightly too violently, surprising Ramb.
He sat next to him.
“I’m here to hide from Trenna. The others already took everything there was to take, so I got here. Chances are he won’t bother to check here. But I was hoping to be alone. I guess we should never wish for too much.”
“...I suppose you’re right.”
The silence again. Maybe it was a good thing for him that someone found him. Better, Ramb was glad that someone was his hater. At least, he could consider that it was someone he knew, despite the fact this… “friendship” was one-sided.
Ramb was suffering more and more as time passed, and his skull was still hurting from hitting the floor so hard earlier, and started breathing heavily.
“Can’t you make any more noise, Ramb? God.”
“...I think you’re the first person who actually remembers my name. Well, except for Tenna.”
This comeback shut the pippins up. It seemed like he wanted to fight back, but no words came out of his mouth.
“I’ll be honest, I'm really glad you’re here. It’s nice to see a familiar face in a moment like this.”
“You shouldn’t. I have no affection for you.”
“If you say so. But at least you are not completely indifferent. I’d rather you hate me than like everybody else you just… don’t care. Thank you.”
“I- ”
He turned his head. Not knowing what to answer, he just let out a rather small “tch”. He took a deep breath, but didn’t add anything. He was about to get up, but with his still functional hand, Ramb grabbed his cloak.
“I know you don’t really like me, but could you just stay before I… before I leave, please? I was used to being alone, but now that I am really dying, I'm starting to shake a little.”
Still standing, the dice stopped moving for a bit, before sitting back down next to his doomed coworker.
The dark was still blinding Ramb, but he could hear the shaking breath of the pippins. This one got ready to speak, but changed his mind realizing he wouldn’t be able to finish his sentence.
“Are you okay? You really don’t seem to be.” Ramb took some time to think of what could shake him up so much, especially if it was to stay with HIM, out of all people. “Good God, mate, if you need to join someone, go find them, don’t stay with a random person! Or maybe- Oh no, don’t tell me you’re also…?”
He must be turning into stone too, Ramb thought. Why else would he be stuck here with him, knowing he hated him?
Wanting to make sure the darkner was still safe from petrification, he patted the floor in search of any source of light. There was always one, backstage…!
His hand stopped on what seemed to be a switch, and clicked.
“No, don’t -!”
And there was light.
To his surprise, the pippins was currently weeping. Except for this, his face was perfectly fine. No sign of stone on his hands either. However, his cloak was now wet with tears, darkened by the water from the tears that spilled on it.
Oh, he was starting to get it, now.
He never truly hated him, did he?
What a shame he only got to know it now.
Ramb stayed silent, to not embarrass him, thought it was probably already too late. His hateful coworker was covering his face with his hands, as if to hide a disfigured face.
“I hate you. Don’t look at me like that! I’m not crying for…you!”
Of course. Why couldn’t he see it before?
Ramb was very good at analyzing people, but anytime he was involved, he became blind with this sort of stuff. Hesitantly, he put his hand on his friend’s back.
“There is no shame in crying, I won’t judge you for something so normal.”
“Shut up! You don’t understand, you…” Feeling the tears wetting his eyes again, he shut his mouth for a bit. Ramb remained quiet during this time, waiting for him to finish his sentence. “Maybe you wouldn’t be dead if you weren’t so stupid! You…”
“Hey, come on, I’m not dead yet!”
He let out a shy laugh, but this didn’t seem to cheer up the pippins.
“However, I'm happy to learn not everybody was indifferent about me. Though, I have to be honest, you took your time…”
“I DON’T. LIKE. YOU. There is NOTHING about you I can stand.”
he dried his tears with the fabric of his clothes, but his tears didn’t stop flowing, making this action rather useless.
“I hate that you think you have anything to do in TV World. I hate your stupid british accent. I hate that you always think you know everything about everybody. I hate that you keep saying nobody knows your name, when you never even BOTHERED to ask for mine, I hate that-”
“I know your name!”
“You never asked!”
“Yes i did. You said you didn’t want to tell me, so I had to ask someone else. I didn’t want to make you uncomfy, so I didn’t use it. That is all.”
“Oh, really? Go on then.”
“Your name is Gamble, am I wrong?”
Gamble let his arms fall on his sides.
The pippinses were all almost identical from each other, so usually no one other than another pippins knew how to distinguish them. But Ramb showed him otherwise.
A wave of regret took over his heart.
“It’s a bit late to tell you this, but… You were my only friend here, surprisingly.”
“I don’t consider you a friend.”
Ramb took some time to interpret this sentence. He saw two ways to understand it, but with the given context, he had a hard time knowing which one was its real meaning.
Maybe the pippins wanted him to understand both.
The plug’s body started to shake. The cold freezed his body. Or maybe was it just that he was about to die. The dice took off his poncho, and put it on Ramb’s shoulders. “You make too much noise,” he said. Ramb smiled.
“I don’t think I have much time left, mate. Can I just… share my only regret with you? If it is too much of a burden, I understand if you don’t want to…”
Gamble didn’t react, so Ramb considered it wouldn’t bother him too much. Ramb soflty took his hand, and although the pippins flinched, he didn’t fight back.
“I wish we talked more. I wish we had talked earlier, too.”
The stone cracked, and spread a bit more on Ramb’s body, taking over his right leg.
“And I wish you would’ve died before I had to meet you.”
The stone was now at neck level, the hand holding the pippins entirely petrified, stuck in its position. While Ramb’s face hardened, he still managed to let out his final words:
“I wish I did too, luv.”