Chapter Text
They couldn’t believe their eyes. This whole thing was caused by a teenager?! Month after month of their Mondays being spent here because of some kid?!
“I know you have your questions-“
“A ton, actually.” Chaos stepped forward, an uneven mix of confusion and anger coursing through her veins. “First off, what is this place? And why did you start taking us?! What did we do to you!?”
“Okay- you’re mad, I get that.” Blob kicked at the ground while Chaos stared at him in disbelief.
“A little more than mad,” Endy rubbed the back of their neck. Never one to admit it aloud, but they couldn’t process how much they had started to loathe the thing dragging them here. He just never thought it would be a teenager.
“What they mean is-,” Mal stepped in front of the other hosts, “Why us?”
The watcher’s ears perked up, “Oh, that's easy!” The cheeriness in stars voice sent a small shiver down their spines. “I picked you three because you’re entertaining.” Entertaining?! What the heck did he mean by ‘entertaining’?? Blob must have read their minds. “Let me explain. For starters, you three already have some sort of fanbase. Either on TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, ect.” A million invisible eyes locked onto the hosts as Blob continued to smile. “Who would want boring hosts for a podcast?!”
“You didn’t ask us.” Mal could feel the eyes on them, scanning their every word. “Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting to see Chaos and Endy more, but… this isn’t of our own accord.”
“Well, I take great care of you here, so I don’t see the issue.” Star gave a small shrug before teleporting onto the couch. “You three have a whole world you can shape however you want, a stocked kitchen, an entire house just to yourselves, and you’re upset over free will??”
“We don’t even know you, why wouldn’t we freak out about having our autonomy taken away?” Chaos maneuvered their way back to the couch, sitting beside the teen. He had flopped himself down in a way he could take up almost half of the couch. They couldn’t believe him. Almost a year of this and he acts as though they’d just smile and have a little chit-chat with him?! No! The three of them had been dragged here week after week and he acts as though it’s nothing? “How would you feel if you got dragged out of your home every week to film a podcast? That book you left us wasn’t very helpful on how to get home.”
Blob sat up, tilting his head as though he were a confused puppy. “What book? The only books here are the fanfictions I knew you liked.” A skeleton hand passed the book to the young watcher. As star flipped through the pages, a look of confused shock grew on stars face. “I- I didn’t leave this for y’all, I don’t know what this is.”
“So you don’t blame Chaos for what happened in World Hoppers?” Endy leaned on the back of the couch. Their ears were tensed to the side of their head as their wings stretched to keep Mal within their grasp. “You don’t- like- hate us or are using this place as a punishment?” The teen nervously laughed.
“You think I hate you? No, I don’t hate you guys! Didn’t you hear what I just said about taking care of you? And the World Hoppers thing- wasn’t that faulty code? I mean I remember you accidentally breaking a mod in season 2 and Mallette having to fix it, but that was something entirely different.” The three backed away slightly as he remained sitting up. “What? I'm not some psycho, I needed to know my hosts before doing this.”
“Not weird at all, kid…” Chaos slid to the opposing end of the couch. The word ‘kid’ must have riled him up. He sat up on his knees with all three pairs of wings flared out behind him.
“I am not a kid! I am almost an adult, thank you.” He pointed to his hoodie. “Class of 2026 and future class of 2030 since I’m going to college.” Star sat back down with a huff and started mumbling.
“Well, regardless of your age or who you are,” The skeleton sat beside him across from Chaos, “who left those notes then? Some of them we read were pretty threatening…”
Blob looked up at Endy, who was moving to sit beside Chaos. “Most likely The Elders. They don't really like Endy.” A small pause. “Or anyone, honestly.” Chaos’ hand moved to Endy’s shoulder. “They told me this podcast idea was stupid and a waste of my abilities.” Blob stood up with his wings once again puffed out and began to pace. “You do one mock life series with your friends for shits and giggles and this is where it gets ya. All your friends having fun while you’re stuck with stupid voices narrating your life and you can’t even enjoy Minecraft anymore because those purple bastards are everywhere!”
“So you didn’t threaten us.?”
“What?! No!” Blob grabbed Mal’s hands. “I don’t want to hurt you guys! Why don’t you understand that?? I just wanted you three to have some fun!”
“This is your idea of fun?” Mal pulled their hands back, “You call this fun?”
“Well, not really. But it’s the best I could do at the time.” He spun around in the air before standing up and levitating off the ground. “I had to do a podcast thing in 10th grade English; that’s kinda where I got the idea.”
“Uh-huh..” Endy took Blob by the shoulders and pushed star till stars feet touched the floor. “Well, do you think you can stop it?”
A stifled chuckle escaped the teen, “I fear I can’t. The Elders gave me the ability to create but not destroy.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And there may or may not be a whole world full of ferrets-“
“So we’re stuck here?” Chaos circled the teen, who was standing still for once due to Endy’s hands on his shoulders. “Like- there's no way out of this?”
“Not at the moment-no. I can try to work on some failsafe's for you three- but it will take time.” Star summoned a large book into stars hands. Pages and notes stuck out from the sides in sporadic patterns, matching the thought process of its author. “Okay- so this has a few lines of code that can help y'all leave here sooner because I still have no clue why you can’t just leave when you want..” He sat down on his knees before opening the book. The adults leaned over his shoulders, trying to make out the messy handwriting on the notes. “There’s also the addresses to some of the other worlds I’ve made. There’s a FNaF world, Sonic world, medieval world.” He counted them off on his fingers.
“Why all those themed worlds?” Mal knelt down to his level. “Those don’t have anything in common at all.”
“Eh,” He shrugged, “3a.m. hyperfixations are weird. Theres also a marching band one but that's more so for me to practice my dots and get ready for color guard auditions in college.” He shut the book before handing it off to Mal. “I say have fun and knock yourselves out. Like I’ve been saying; I’m not trying to be malevolent or evil or controlling. This is just a mishap of powers I didn’t fully understand…” The young watcher stood up before making his way to the opposite side of the room. “I do have to leave now, but I will be back! Who knows, maybe I’ll stick around for an episode. I just really want you three to know how sorry I am for this becoming so… out of our control.”
The 3 hosts stood side by side while he gave his ‘farewell speech’ as if he was wrapping up a final performance. Mal held the giant book to their chest, running xeir finger along the embroidery in the leather. The teen bowed with extravagance before turning into a small cloud of purple haze. An odd silence surrounded them for a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
The book ended up on the table with its pages open as Chaos started typing into their blue panels of code. After maybe 15-16 tries, a portal opened to their left. On the other side of the portal… was &SMP! They did it!!
“Hey, guys!” Chaos called over their shoulder. Mal and Endy poked their heads out of the kitchen, each holding a cup of cocoa. “I- I think I found a way back to &!” Chaos grabbed the book while the two others walked over to their sides. The blue sky of &SMP called to them from the other side.
A year of seeing like their lives were completely out of their control. A year of unease and uncertainty. A year of their faux stability sitting upon a mountain of sand. That was all behind them now. Home was just a few steps away. They now had a grasp on something that used to make them feel as though everything was slipping through their fingers. They looked around the house for the last time before stepping through the portal and going home. At least until next week.
Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of Fandive! We’ll be back again next Monday to dive into yet another fandom. Got a question or topic for the podcast? Head on over to our website; fandive.tumblr.com. It is Tumblr, after all. We’re not afraid to be fans of things.