Chapter Text
When the Pippinses first arrived in TV World, it was a bit confusing for everyone. It wasn't entirely unusual for a darkner species to suddenly pop up in a dark world. Whether it's because the lightners bought something new or brought it from somewhere else, darkners joining dark worlds wasn't all that uncommon. The only difference this time was that it felt out of place in more ways than one.
Firstly, there were a lot of them. Like a lot. One of the Zappers had found a bundle of them sleeping in the purple cliffs on their patrol and immediately reported it to Tenna, which was at the same time as about three other Zappers who had encountered the same thing in other parts of TV World. Usually, new darkners tended to come in twos or threes, maybe even by themself, not in twenties.
Secondly, they were quite small. It's not like they were miniscule or anything, but in comparison to TV World's regular inhabitants these guys were tiny. This was made even more apparent when they pulled apart from each other after they'd woken up, some of them just barely being taller than Ramb, who also teetered on the edge of being the shortest darkner.
Thirdly, and most notably, it took everyone about four seconds to realise – after they had woken up and started asking questions, and wandering, and what not – that they were dice. It wasn't as if TV World had a strict theme or anything but, because of that, there was an immediate confusion surrounding their arrival. Where had they come from? How come they manifested in this world and not another one? Were they even compatible? Why were there so many of them?? And was ‘Pippins’ supposed to be plural or singular??? Additionally, no one knew what to expect from the dice, not even Tenna but he seemed on board enough to hire them all and offer various work positions on set, which was met with mixed reception. Some of the Pippinses (it was singular, they all later learned) seemed happy to get jobs so quick and easy while others were less than thrilled at the idea, some of them mumbling something about better living conditions at Card Castle. Once Tenna offered them extra POINTs in exchange for their work ethic though, all of the Pippinses changed their tune and were suddenly very eager to start working.
When the Pippins had mentioned Card Castle, everyone assumed that they must've been talking about their previous dark world (“home” one might say) which answered at least a few questions. Turns out that Kris – Tenna's favourite lightner – had a vigorous habit of pilfering all types of objects from all kinds of places. In other words, they stole a lot of things which resulted in darkners popping up in TV World, even if they seemed out of place. Kris had swiped an abnormal amount of dice from somewhere within their school, Tenna didn't hear the exact details, which is the reason why there were so many Pippinses now running around.
While there was still an air of mystery surrounding them, the Pippinses fit in surprisingly well with their environment, almost blending in as though they had always meant to exist in this dark world. Still though, there was a lot about the little guys that nobody knew and that caused a spark of intrigue within TV World that no amount of reruns or double features ever could.