Chapter Text
It was a perfectly normal day. Sets needed building, scripts needed writing, POINTs needed counted. Despite that, everything felt... off. Tenna was more iritable than usual, but that was to be expected.
Everything had felt wrong since that day. Something beyond just whatever happened with Spamton. Like something was happening, like something was coming. And today everything was perfectly normal, a little too perfect.
Maybe it would be best to ignore the feeling, logically it was probably nothing. But he knew better by now than to just ignore something like that. But in any case, there wasn't anything he could do right now, besides wait out the inevitable.
And it seemed the inevitable had come, when he saw a familiar black and white face lurking in the shadows.
He made his way over to him, when the crew wasn't looking. "Spamton, what are you doing?"
"OH, NOTHING. JUST WANTED TO SEE MY [best friends forever] AGAIN."
"...Right. Are you here to talk with Tenna?"
Spamton laughed, sounding vaguely manic, even more than usual. "EAGER TO [cut to the chase]? THAT'S GOOD." Spamton leans in closer, his smile faltering. "But let's go somewhere a little more... private first."
That took him back. Spamton almost never spoke without his salesman voice. "Um sure I guess, if you're this serious? I can get you to your room."
"NO, NOT THERE. BESIDES, [the boob tube] WOULD PROBABLY SEE ME ON THE WAY THERE. I WAS THINKING OF SOMEWHERE ELSE."
"Okay... where then, exactly?"
"OH, NOWHERE. JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES, AND I'LL TAKE YOU."
This was weird, even for Spamton. But, Spamton did seem to care a lot about this. "Um, sure?"
He closed his eyes.
He waited, and nothing happened. He expected Spamton to grab his hand or something, but there was nothing. He was tempted to open one of his eyes, and see if Spamton had just run off or something.
"Um, are we going to go?"
"WE'RE HERE."
"What?"
He opened his eyes, to find himself not where he was before. It was an area of the backstage he had never seen before, but still felt familiar somehow.
"MIKE, I NEED YOU TO LISTEN TO ME VERY, VERY CAREFULLY."
"Where... are we?"
"I NEED YOU TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME."
"...What?"
"I NEED YOU TO FORGET ABOUT ME. ABOUT TENNA, ABOUT QUEEN, ABOUT HIM, ABOUT THAT [stupid clown], ABOUT PINK. ABOUT EVERYONE."
"Spamton, you're starting to scare me."
"I NEED YOU TO RUN AWAY, AND NEVER LOOK BACK. DON'T TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU ARE GOING, EVEN TENNA. ESPECIALLY TENNA."
"Is this about that day? Did something happen?"
"I NEED YOU TO HIDE SOMEWHERE WHERE NO ONE WILL EVER FIND YOU. DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO. JUST. DON'T. GET. SEEN."
"Spamton? Are you even listening to me?"
"AND IF YOU EVER THINK YOU SEE ME AGAIN, I NEED YOU TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY."
"Spamton, can you please just explain what's going on!?
"AND IF I EVER TRY TO TALK TO YOU, BE POLITE, AND RUN THE MOMENT I LOOK AWAY."
"Spamton!"
Spamton began walking away, towards the exit. Wait, was there an exit before? No matter, that's a question for another time, right now Mike needed to run after him.
"Wait-"
"-time it is!"
"...What?"
Tenna stood in front of him, looking at him expectedly. "Mike, did you really forget? I swear, you've been out of it all day today."
"What... just happened? Where am I?"
Tenna looked almost... concerned for a moment. "Mike, perhaps you should take the day off. You don't seem to be feeling well. You've been acting strange all day. Did something happen?"
Mike paused for a long second.
"I can't quite remember, actually..."
"...Well if you ever remember, don't be afraid to tell me. If someone's making you uncomfortable or anything, I would fire them in a heartbeat for you! Or if it's something else, I'll get you anything you need!" Tenna glanced downwards. "Whatever you need, Mike. I just... can't lose you too."
"...Thanks, boss. I think I'll go home now."
"Fantastic! Though, be back tomorrow by 9!"
"Um, of course, boss."