Chapter Text
Something was fishy about the S-rank area.
Battat had never spent significant time back there before, since it's actually a dump, but found out recently that they got something interesting in the back that he didn't know about before.
The original game.
The game that Tenna would make his contestants play on the game show was a heavily altered version of another game. That wasn't new knowledge to anyone. Like, 'Legend of Tenna'? Really? Yeah, real creative name there. But he had never thought about there being a copy of the original game still lying around somewhere. Had never even heard anyone bring up the possibility of that being a thing. But after he found that out while doing his Mike shift, he got suspicious.
Tenna had sent him to go check on the contestants that were about to be on to make sure they were ready. As soon as he had ushered them out to get on with filming, the backstage door opened up slowly, creaking unsettlingly. Of course, he went to investigate. Nothing seemed too out of place, the board character controllers locked up like usual and the schedule for the day's show up on the wall. But… he saw a curtain fluttering at the end of the hallway, revealing another room behind it. Weird. He didn't know there was more to the room; he never stuck around for long enough to see it whenever he fetched some controllers.
Battat walked over to it and found a small side room with a large screen against the wall and a game console in front of it. He got down to get a closer look at the game, curious about a simple little game like this being stored away somewhere like that. He narrowed his eyes for a better look at the cartridge and saw a familiar image on the artwork. That logo; it looked just like that shape at the startscreen of Tenna's game, before the white flash and the title switching to 'Legend of Tenna'. It had the sword down the middle and everything.
He was about to go and investigate further when Tenna called for him again and he had to leave. But that game. It had to be the original one. Which shouldn't have meant anything.
… But something about it irked him.
"Don't worry, Battat. You'll be fine. It's just a quick investigation. You won't be found out and killed. There won't be any eldritch horrors waiting to suck out your soul and crawl under your skin. You're… fine!"
Surprisingly, talking about all the bad stuff that could happen to him while he sneaks into the S-rank room was not actually helping him calm down. But that hadn't stopped him before. He wouldn't be deterred from doing his research even if it did threaten his life! Nothing gets in the way of him and his theories!
"EY! Where's do ya think you're goin', buddy? Dis is da S-rank room and I ain't seein' any Pippins on da list today!"
The Zapper in front of the door stopped him in his tracks, giving him a very distrustful tone as she leaned down towards him. The die tried not to make his gulp too obvious as he reached into his poncho pocket. He put on a confident and serious face, holding back the tremble in his arm as best he could.
"I-I actually c-came here to- to check on something for M-M-Mike!" He said in a strong but slightly shaky tone as he presented the Zapper with a permission slip that he himself signed earlier.
She took it from him with a long, questioning hum and read it over. She started glancing between the note and the Pippins in front of her, as if she was ID-ing him. He just waited nervously, chest puffed out and poker face held firm. After a minute or so the Zapper lowered the slip and finally responded.
"Ah! I sees! In dat case–"
She scooted to the side so she wasn't blocking the door anymore.
"– head on in dere! Take care'a ya business, bud. Mike sure gots lots ta do, don't he?"
He could have collapsed from relief hearing that. He quickly said back, "You can say that again. Thanks." Then he walked inside without giving her a chance to answer.
It was empty, luckily. No one was in there as filming had already ended for the day and clean-up wasn't until way later. Surprised this room even got cleaned with how trashy it looked. And not even seriously trashy, at least then they'd have someone cool hanging around. Just run-of-the-mill trashy.
Whatever! No time to get distracted! He had to focus! He quickly hurried into the backstage area and dashed down the corridor, away from the controllers. He shoved the curtain aside and rushed into the side room.
As soon as Battat spotted the console, he stopped in his tracks. Because there wasn't just the screen and the console there, but another controller that he knew for a fact wasn't there last time. He wasted no time in his investigation and went to check it out.
Picking it up, it was a really odd, light weight, cheap looking controller that you'd buy from some knock-off brand that sells tech for pennies. It was made of some cheap plastic and the buttons were coloured a gaudy pink and yellow. Kinda similar to Pluey's costume eyes actually, but the garbage plastic made it into a retina searing neon. Who on earth would play with a controller like this???
… guess he would.
He didn't hesitate to turn the game on and get it started. He had to see what all this weirdness was about. It could be connected to Mike. It could be the key to finding him. If there was even a small chance of that possibility, he'd take it.
He watched the intro animation with the glittering stars on the blue backdrop, followed by the logo's silhouette fading in before a sword stabbed into it. But before the white flash happened, the screen immediately cut to black with some sort of green squares flickering around in an eye-straining performance. Then the entire screen turned green briefly with a black bar running across it, which then turned to complete darkness, followed by the game gradually loading in.
That… must have been a glitch. No way that's how the game was meant to load. It was jarring and unsettling, definitely not something that prepped one for an epic adventure.
He saw himself in pixel form in the game, like expected. It was normal for Tenna's game to instinctually know who was playing and adapt the character to the player. He was standing in the middle of a big city, in front of what appeared to be a hotel.
Battat moved his 8-bit self up to the hotel doors, just to get a text box saying they were locked. So he headed down to take a look around instead. He did recognise the level design from the show, occasionally switching up the desert board with the city board. It was really quiet, no background music or sound effects as he moved from screen to screen. There was nothing noteworthy to see anywhere, aside from the cactus in the shop building and the velvet rope barriers. He wandered around aimlessly until he found a staircase.
He entered the stairs and found himself in a room similar to the shop, except with a tile path leading up to a key. A key? It's probably for the hotel building. He picked up the key, holding it up triumphantly before being teleported to the… cactus room? Was he supposed to interact with the cactus? He moved his character over to it, but only ended up getting hurt and losing HP. Great.
Though he thought the sound was a little off as he walked into it. He had done so earlier for the same reason, but simply got a normal damage sound. This one sounded… kind of like an 8-bit laugh.
The Pippins steered his character out of the exit and, as the next screen loaded in, he could have sworn he saw something dashing away before he could move again. This black shape moved up north really fast, not giving him the chance to see what it was.
"Ok… what's going on? This is definitely suspicious. No game plays like this, least of all a top-down adventure rpg. Where's the music? The enemies? The STORY??? This can't be just how the game is!"
He had walked his character up after the thing as he talked, getting to the next screen and walking up towards the doors. But he then noticed there was something behind the glass of that door, a faint silhouette visible for a split second before vanishing again.
"Uhh… m-maybe it's just building suspense for a big fight! Strange to do that so early in a game though…"
He interacted with the door and thankfully got a message that said, 'USED THE TV KEY'.
"TV key? Wait… that's not…?"
As the screen faded out then in, he found his character inside a pale yellow lobby of sorts with a red carpet running down the middle and more cacti as decoration. He tried going to either side of the screen, but found invisible walls blocking him in. So he walked down the path laid out for him.
The next room looked much the same, sans the exit. So he continued going onwards, moving to the next screen and finding… the exact same thing. He kept going, only for the next room to also be the same. Getting a little nervous, he barrelled forward through this infinitely looping hall to see if maybe it was just more tension-building nonsense going on. But it just kept repeating. After a minute or so, he decided to check if he was even making progress by going backwards, to see if he'd just return to the exit again.
As soon as he turned his character around, a text box popped up and covered it, saying, 'MIKE!!!'.
Battat stared at the message, his heart picking up in speed as he realised what that meant. This game DID have clues about Mike in it! He knew it!
Pressing the button, the box disappeared to reveal his character again, now facing north, as if he had turned around towards the shout. Must have come from up ahead. Cautious, the Pippins moved forward again and finally entered a new room, only differing in the fancy double doors up ahead, but hey, he'd take anything at this point. Though he was interrupted by another set of text boxes, saying, 'MIKE!!!!!', 'WHERE ARE YOU?!? HURRY UP, WILL YOU?!?'.
He quickly moved his character over to the doors and entered, finding himself walking into an office with the pink Tenna sprite he always puts into his boards. Battat was in awe, watching the screen intently as more text boxes popped up over his character.
'MIKE! THERE YOU ARE! I WAS CALLING FOR YOU!'
'WHATEVER. LOOK, I NEED YOU TO GO AND GET SOMETHING FOR ME. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT.'
'GO TO THE EAST OF TOWN AND FETCH IT FOR ME, WOULD YA?'
'...'
'THANK YOU, MIKE! I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU!'
'HERE, YOU'LL NEED THIS TO GET THROUGH.'
His character turned to the camera and held up a… a… what looked to be a sprite of a microphone? Then text appeared that said, 'GOT THE KEY'. He was confused by the big space between 'the' and 'key'. Was it bugged? Was the microphone another sprite that accidentally replaced the key somehow?
This was getting really weird.
Then the Tenna sprite seemingly spoke again.
'JUST GO THROUGH THE BARRIERS AND HEAD DOWN, THEN GET IT OUT OF THE CHEST FOR ME.'
'I'M TRUSTING YOU WITH THIS, MIKE.'
Then the box disappeared and Battat was left sitting there, stunned and unsure what the hell that was all about. Was he supposed to be playing as Mike in this scene? Then why wasn't his sprite Mike? Did he accidentally replace Mike thanks to Tenna's personalised player character nonsense? Was this game not made with that feature in mind?
He quickly shook his head to dispel all those distracting questions, focusing instead on navigating himself towards said barrier. He walked out the office and back out the hotel, thankfully with only one screen's worth of hallway. As he headed down and to the right, he walked into the room with the rope barriers and, again, saw a black shape quickly dash off screen behind said barriers. That thing was starting to annoy him.
He walked up to the barrier and interacted with it, hoping that would do something. Which it did. Text popped up that said, 'USED THE KEY', before the part he was facing disappeared, allowing him to walk through. He walked down a long, dark, winding alleyway that lasted for a few seconds before he reached a manhole.
"What the…? What could Tenna want out of a manhole???"
He moved his character into the hole, walking down into what appeared to be a dungeon. It was dark, with only a circle of light around him illuminating the dark blue surroundings, with a gravely floor and block walls. He began guiding his character down the halls, when a message popped up in the dark part of the room above him.
'Quite the curious one, aren't you?'
What the hell is this now? Is it the shadow I've been seeing while playing?
He walked some more until more text appeared, this time below him as he walked on the upper path.
'Chasing down the ghost of someone you don't even know.'
'As if you'd even know the answer when you see it.'
"What…?" He felt himself starting to shake a little, that text hitting a little too close. He tried to ignore the nerves and press onwards until more text stopped his character.
'Awe. What's the matter? You're trembling like a leaf. Are you… scared?'
'Didn't you want to figure out what was going on? Didn't you pick up that controller to find the truth?'
Battat yelped and dropped the controller, scrambling away from the console and up against the wall. No way! There was no way the game just addressed him directly! He was imagining things! He had to be!
"H-h-how d-di-d-did you just do that?!? What's happening?!? What are you?!?"
Without him as much as touching the controller, the text proceeded on its own to answer his questions.
'Why so nervous? I'm only trying to help you.'
'You wanted some sort of answers, right? Well I'm here to assist!'
"A-alright! Th-then answer my questions!"
'Well, what's happening is exactly what it looks like; a game is talking to you. Why is that surprising? You're a die.'
"Th-that's different! I'm a darkner, you're a video game inside a dark world!"
'And who's to say I'm not one too?'
He didn't really have a response to that. Guess he didn't have any reason to believe this wasn't another darkner.
"Alright. Fine. Then who are you?"
'A friend of Mike's, you could say.'
"MIKE?!?"
The Pippins scrambled back over to the screen and stared in disbelief, unsure if he read that correctly. But it was right there in black and white.
"Please! What can you tell me about Mike?! Who is he?! Where is he?! How does he know Tenna?!"
'So eager, this one. Don't get too worked up, everything will be cleared up soon. You just gotta go and get that thing that Tenna asked you for.'
Battat directed his eyes down onto the controller, mind swimming with so many questions and theories. It was overwhelming and had him paralysed on the spot. But he looked back up at the sound of the dialogue blips.
'Well? What are you waiting for? Just grab that treasure and unveil this mystery once and for all!'
He didn't need any convincing. He quickly picked up the controller and moved his character through the dark maze until he finally found himself in a big room, lit up and containing a black creature with an orange smile right in the middle.
'There you are. Now, how much would you give for this knowledge?'
He didn't like where this was going.
"Uh… what?"
'It's simple! How desperate are you to find the truth?'
"So you're saying there's a catch then?"
'More so just curious about how devoted you are to your cause.'
"Well I've already given up my sanity and time to figure out this Mike mystery! What more could I give?"
'True… what about your… identity? Did you give that up?'
"... … … suppose I did do that too. I barely know who I am anymore. Not that I was very noteworthy to begin with! Not like it would matter if 'Battat' wasn't around."
He was surprised at himself for opening up like this to the pixelated creature in front of him. Maybe he was just talking at it instead of to it. Or maybe he was just going along with it to make it more willing to give him the info.
The thing on the screen laughed, making Battat frown from the ridicule. It didn't have to be such a jerk.
'How interesting! Well, after this, you will certainly be something else, won't you? After uncovering this mystery, Battat will be someone worthy of note!'
That concept really struck a chord with him for some reason. The idea of being something more than just a miscoloured Pippins, a replacement for a stranger, a crazy conspiracy theorist, it sparked a glimmer of hope inside of him. All his work would finally give him the recognition he didn't know he was craving.
"I… I'll… I'll finally be more. I won't have to be a nobody who never accomplished anything. I'll be recognised!"
'Exactly! You can leave that boring old you behind and become a new you! All you have to do… is open this chest.'
As the sprite said that, it quickly flew off screen to reveal a chest that it was hiding underneath it. And Battat was thrilled. He was finally going to solve the mystery! He would finally find Mike! He was seeing the fruits of his labour at last!
He pressed forward and approached the chest, interacting with it and opening it. His character then turned around and held up a black square, completely devoid of features. Below him, text popped up that read, 'GET THE SHADOW MANTLE'.
"What is that? Shadow mantle? What does this have to do with Mike?"
He pushed the proceed button, but was left confused as the acquire item sound played again and the text box disappeared and reappeared, saying, 'GET THE SHADOW MANTLE'.
He made a puzzled noise as he pressed again, getting the exact same effect. What was happening? Was it a bug? Was the game bugging out right before he was gonna uncover the truth? Just his freaking luck, right?!
As he did the same thing for a third time, something occurred to him as the text came back on screen.
"Get the shadow mantle? Doesn't the text usually say 'got', not 'get'? Is it a typo? But wouldn't the code make it so the first part is always the same and the only variable is the item name?" He thought out loud as he rationalised what was happening. A hypothesis came to mind as he considered the difference between the two words.
Is it… a command?
Unsure, the shaky darkner pushed himself up onto his feet and walked over to the screen. He came right up to it, staring at his miniature self as it stood frozen in perpetual enlightenment, never to be concluded. It settled an unpleasant feeling in his gut and he took one step back, eyes drifting down to the text again. Still the same.
This is stupid. But… it's worth a shot.
He lifted his hand and hovered it close to the screen, feeling the tingling static against his palm as he hesitated. Why was he so nervous? It was right there! His ticket to solving this big mystery once and for all! He just had to grab it!
Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Battat closed his eyes and stretched out his hand towards the screen. He felt the glass for a brief moment before his arm was enveloped in static and moved through the barrier. So he continued; then, feeling something brush up against his fingers, he grasped it firmly and-
He didn't know when he blacked out. But he knew that he must have done so, since he suddenly found himself staring ahead at a blur of dark browns. His head was spinning, his body felt weak and he could barely remember what had happened to put him in this position. He could barely even feel his limbs as he lifted one arm to rub his poor head.
Uuuuughhh… god damn. Why do I feel so fuzzy? Where am I?
He pushed himself to sit up with great effort, taking a second to collect his bearings and take in the room. After recognising the TV and console in front of him, the memories started coming back.
Right. That game. I was just about to get that mantle thing. I reached through the screen and… then I must have fainted.
That sounded logical enough. But the question was; why did he faint? What exactly happened to him?
He shuffled around a bit before he was sitting straighter, finally feeling his vision returning to normal. As it did, he spotted something black right in front of him. It startled him enough to start scrambling back towards the wall. But as he did, he saw the shape move and he paused as he processed what the black thing was.
… oh. Those are my shoes. I got scared by my own feet.
He felt like an idiot. So, as any normal person would do when being stupid, he facepalmed himself and sighed deeply. Except… he didn't hear himself sigh. He didn't even make a noise. Removing his hand from his face out of surprise, he then noticed something else off about the situation.
His hands were also black.
He shot up onto his feet and looked himself over frantically, finding that every last inch of him was a solid, dark as night, black colour. He was just a shadow!
He tried to scream at the revelation, but heard no noise coming out of his mouth still. At that thought passing his mind, a terrifying question arose that gave him pause. He raised his hands to his face and traced the lower half where his lips should be.
But there were none. It was a smooth surface.
He began to panic and aimlessly feel around his face, as if that would somehow remove the black coating over his form. He was shaking and hyperventilating. He still couldn't hear his rapid breaths, but he could most certainly feel them.
Oh my god oh my god oh my god! What's happening to me?!? Why am I… a shadow?!? How did I turn into this?!?
He must be having an awful nightmare. That's the only reasonable explanation for his current state. He fell asleep at his desk and dreamt up this horrifying scenario because of his overwhelming stress. That had to be the case.
Without realising it, he stumbled out of the side room and into the S-rank room. He looked around and found it empty. Weird. What time was it, anyway? He continued towards the exit and opened the door, seeing the Zapper guard wasn't there anymore. She must have had to switch out or something. Or it was really late.
So he left, coming into the green room and finding that empty too. He then checked the wall clock and confirmed that it was a few hours before people started getting up. He must have been out for quite some time. Which meant that Pluey and Jongler must be worried sick about him. He had to get back to the Mike room.
So the silhouetted darkner wasted no time in booking it down the hallway towards his destination, hoping that either of them were there, waiting for him. Though, doubt started rising in the back of his mind, wondering if they would even care enough to be worried. They may have just shrugged it off as him being absorbed in another one of his theories and went on with their day. He wouldn't blame them.
"Hey! Who's there?!"
He came to a grinding halt at that shout, recognising that voice immediately.
It was Tenna.
Oh crap! This wasn't good! Tenna would not be happy seeing one of the Pippins lurking around so early in the morning. He'd probably assume that he was causing trouble and send him to the punishment cage. He would prefer to avoid that.
But he didn't get a chance to snap out of his stunned state before a bright light rounded the corner and shone down on him. He covered his face from the blinding TV display, frozen on the spot as he heard Tenna raise his voice.
"And what do you think you're doing out here so early?! You should be-"
Then, suddenly, the footsteps stopped and Tenna quickly shut up. Confused, he lowered his arms to look up at the TV, who was wearing a face of pure disbelief.
"Wh-what the…?"
Oh. Right. He was completely dark. That must be very surprising to him. Why on earth would someone paint themselves totally black and sneak around the studio? No wonder he looked so shocked. He-
"KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Tenna screamed bloody murder and pointed at him like he was an axe murderer covered in blood. It scared him a little, not expecting him to get that frightened by a black Pippins. He took an unintentional step forward as he examined Tenna, trying to figure out why he'd react like that.
But the host just jumped back, turned around and legged it back down the corridor again, screaming as he ran for his life, "STAY AWAY FROM ME, DEMON!!! AAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
Demon…?
Had Tenna been watching horror movies before bed again? He would always get really jumpy whenever that happened, and him being an actual shadow of a Pippins would certainly contribute to that.
Whatever. He didn't have time to dwell on it. He had to get back to the Mike room.
*~*~*
When he made it back to the room, he unfortunately found it to be empty. He shouldn't be surprised by that, but it kinda stung for reasons he couldn't really pinpoint. Still, he walked inside and immediately headed for his theory room. Sure, maybe he shouldn't be focusing on that and instead try to get help, but he had to write down some notes while the info was still fresh on his mind.
He opened the door and turned the lights on, shocked to find the room completely cleaned up. Not as in it was empty, but that it was spotless and organised. Someone had been gathering up his documents and putting them all into a neat stack, loose notes and photos being put away into folders that were then put up on a shelf. His supplies were gone, put away into his desk drawer without any care for accessibility of the most frequently used ones. His mug was completely missing, his trash can was emptied, the board was put away and someone had moved his box of energy drinks he kept under his desk.
WHO THE HELL MOVED MY STUFF?!? DID JONGLER AND PLUEY TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLEAN THE ROOM WHILE I WAS MISSING?!? HOW DARE THEY?!? THEY KNOW THAT I HAVE A VERY PARTICULAR SYSTEM FOR MY DOCUMENTS, AND THEY LUMPED ALL OF IT TOGETHER IN ONE PILE!!! AND THAT WAS MY FAVOURITE MUG THEY MOVED!!! IF THEY CLEANED IT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, I SWEAR!!!
He paced around the room as he was silently fuming, unable to believe that they would do this to him while he was gone. They were fully aware of how much he hated when his stuff was moved around without his knowledge. He needed it to be sorted his way or else he'd never find it. It was going to take days to sort everything out again!
As he was making doughnuts around the room, he heard something from the other room. It sounded like… actually, he had no idea what it was. It was like a really messed up piece of audio, randomly jumbled up to sound like complete nonsense. He froze on the spot and waited to hear it again. But instead, he heard a familiar voice call out.
"Boss? You's in here? It's 'bout Tenna!"
JONGLER!
The dark Pippins quickly ran for the door, opening it to see the Zapper in their Mike outfit, looking around for him. He wasted no time and walked out to meet them, waving his arm in the air to get their attention. Which he sure as hell did.
Jongler turned to look at him, causing them to go stiff and stare at him like they saw a spirit. But he was just so relieved to see them that he continued over towards them while gesturing his hands around, trying to talk with them, which ended up being unsuccessful. What he did succeed in was making the Zapper fall over as they jolted back away from him, holding one hand out in an attempt to stop him. Which he did as soon as he saw them get so startled. What was with them? He couldn't be looking that much different from usual, right?
"Wh-whu… What are y-you? Wh-why do ya looks like Hd7*$p?"
He was scared by the sudden distortion in their voice, sounding just like that jumbled noise from earlier. Did they make that sound??? How???
"H-hey, pal. You's better step back b-before I gets physical!"
He was getting desperate. Why was this happening to him?! Why couldn't he talk?! Why couldn't anyone recognise him?!
"I-I'M WARNIN' YA!"
He wasn't even approaching anymore! Why did they have to yell at him?!
Then, as the two were staring each other down, the door to Mike's room flew open. They looked over and saw two people enter. One was Pluey, holding onto his tommy gun as he prepared to protect his buddy. And the second…
… was himself.
His eyes widened at the green Pippins standing beside Pluey, eyes darting between the two other people in the room. He seemed to be equally as surprised as his friends were. Then he eyed the not-so-green-anymore darkner and gave a long, intense stare that seemed to bore into his soul.
Wh-what…? That's…? N-no way! But… why…?
"What the hell is that?!"
Pluey seemed equally flabbergasted as he released some frantic jazz notes.
"Boss! Plues! Dis freaky thing just showed up outta nowhere an'- an'- I dunno!" Jongler sputtered out as they scooted back away from the shade in front of them. He looked down at them and felt… hurt. Why would they call him that? He was the original! Not this other guy!
But the doppelganger didn't seem too nervous, simply running up in front of them and shielding the Zapper from their attacker. But he wasn't attacking them! He hadn't done anything! Why was everyone so afraid?!
"Listen! You better get out of here before I start throwing bullets!"
The Shadowguy backed his Pippins friend up, walking over to his side and aiming the gun at the other shadow.
Something clenched in his chest at that action. He was going to shoot him without any guilt, because he was nothing more than a trespasser to them all. He was… not their friend. Not like this, he wasn't.
He managed to get his legs moving, just in time to dart out of the room and away from his friends and that pretender. He just ran as fast as he could, not caring where exactly he went. He just needed to find someplace he could be alone.
He ended up hiding himself inside a changing room, backing up against a wall and breathing rapidly as his heart pounded against his chest. He wasn't sure what to think right then. He didn't know what to do. What could he even do? He had been replaced by someone who looked exactly like him. Unless… that wasn't the case. Could it be that… he was the copy that somehow fooled himself into believing he was the original? That would explain why no one recognised him. But then why would they get so scared at just the sight of him?
His eyes gradually drifted to the side, towards a mirror on the wall beside him. He hadn't noticed it until right then, and he hadn't even considered looking at himself to answer that last question. But as he finally met his own eyes…
…
… he could really tell why everyone was scared.
He was staring into a pair of beady, glowing, orange eyes that pierced their targets like needles. And the rest of him wasn't much better. From just looking at himself earlier he looked fairly normal, aside from the being entirely black thing. But in the mirror, he looked like a demon. His form was foggy and indistinct, only vaguely making the shape of a Pippins, if said Pippins was emitting ominous fumes. He thought he would have looked like a mix of a Shadowguy and a Pippins, but instead looked like some sort of smoke apparition with burning eyes.
He couldn't tear his eyes away from the image staring back at him. He was frozen and afraid and overwhelmed by everything that was happening to him. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that he was being replaced. Whatever had taken his body was now pretending to be him and tricking his friends. And they were none the wiser! They believed it! Was it really that good at playing him?! Had it been watching him and studying him in preparation to take over his life?! Had he just been played for a fool and fallen right into such an obvious trap?!
He sat down on the floor and started breathing faster again, picturing everything that might end up happening because of his stupid curiosity. Maybe it would just take his place and be him for the rest of time, leaving the original to skulk around in the cliffs all alone, never being able to see his friends ever again. And that was the good alternative. The other was that thing planning on doing something equally as nefarious to his friends, maybe taking their lives too just like his. Or maybe it was planning on getting close to Tenna to take his place instead, gaining control of the entirety of TV world! It could be-!
The curtain to the changing room was pushed aside by someone, resulting in the ex-pippins on the floor looking up in a panic and yelping silently in fear. The purple figure was equally as startled, jumping back with a shout of their own.
"AHHHH! WHAT THE HECK?!"
He raised his arms up to shield himself, trying to beg for them to not hurt him, despite lacking a voice to beg with. He was fully expecting another freak-out or an attack from this person, since everyone else had reacted with either fear or hostility so far. But instead…
"H-hey! Whoa there! I'm not gonna hurt you! I'm sorry I yelled like that! I just wasn't expecting anyone to be in here!"
… Slowly, he lowered his arms and looked up at them nervously, taking the opportunity to examine them.
She looked a lot like a Shadowguy, if Shadowguys were purple instead of black. Though she wasn't wearing a hat and instead had long hair that curled at the end. She wasn't wearing anything particularly noteworthy that could be picked out from the rest of her, save for a lanyard with keys and an ID card hanging around her neck. She had a bag beside her, which she must have dropped after seeing him.
"Are you ok? You look… not well."
She leaned down and offered him her hand, tilting her head with a sheepish smile. He hesitated to accept it, not recognising this individual. He had never seen a purple Shadowguy before, and certainly not one that could talk. Plus, she was way too calm in comparison to his previous run-ins. He kinda tried muttering to himself that he was fine, even though he knew she wouldn't-
"You don't look fine. You were shaking pretty badly before."
He immediately jumped up in complete shock, finally registering that she had been responding to him earlier too. He pointed at her and yelled that she could hear him , questioning.
"Uh… yyyyyyyeah? Sh-shouldn't I?"
He just stared at her in disbelief. What was happening? How come he couldn't hear himself but she could seemingly understand him perfectly? It didn't make sense! Even if it was a situation where only specific individuals were able to hear him, shouldn't he still be able to hear his own voice?!
"Uhhhhhh… am I… missing something here? You seem lost."
He turned to start pacing around, grumbling out loud about how this was all so weird. First he gets tricked into swapping bodies or whatever with a freaky nightmare creature, then he has to deal with looking like said nightmare creature, scaring everyone except for this random Shadowguy and said Shadowguy being the only person who can even understand him.
She looked away uncomfortably at the external monologue that was clearly meant to be internal. She wasn't sure how to react, especially after hearing everything that had seemingly happened to him.
"Um… wow. That… that sure sounds like… a lot?"
He sighed and sagged defeatedly, looking over at her as she shifted around, as if there was something she was itching to tell him. He spat at her to just come right out and say what she had to say!
"Ah-! Well-! Th-the thing is… I'm uh… I'm not a Shadowguy."
The shade jolted in surprise, staring at her as she laughed nervously.
"Sorry, yeah. I get that a lot. I'm actually Asriel's old Fire Magician figurine! You know, the one Kris dipped in purple paint? I don't know if you were around at the time that happened, but that's about the time I started working here at the studio."
He tilted his head questioningly at her, asking if Asriel didn't throw her away.
"Thrown away?! Are you kidding?! Do you know how expensive game-interactive figurines are??? I knew a Flower Princess figure that had just started coming out before I was bought and she was PRICEY!"
He was again confused. He made a stop sign with his hands before he pointed at her.
"Game-interactive? Oh yeah! Don't you know about that? I got this chip inside my shoes that you can scan with your controller to let me affect the game. Like summoning a version of me in it!"
Ok. Made sense enough to him. Would explain why the goat wouldn't simply just throw her in the trash. He went on to ask her about what she does in the studio, since he'd never seen her around before.
"Yeah. I kinda try to stay out of people's way. I don't want to be a bother to anyone, considering I'm kinda damaged goods now. Tenna was so sweet to me and gave me a job as a night janitor. It's actually soon time for me to clock out."
Interesting. How come he didn't know about her? He was supposed to know everyone! Right? He was Tenna's right-hand man! He should be in the know on every employee in the studio! Then again, when was the last time he checked the employee record? He probably only went through it in a mad scan for any clues on Mike and never paid close attention to anyone he leafed past.
He was brought out of his thoughts as the purple gal held out her hand again, this time in friendly greeting. "My name's Silouanne. What's yours?"
He decided to gently swat her hand away, not interested in any handshakes in his current mood. Then he went to respond, only to stop short as he was hit with a realisation that shook him down to his very core.
He didn't know.
He couldn't remember his own name.