Hey wait a second...
⎠. â the under presents
wc; 2.6k
summary; you work as the acting manager for the under when the mc refuses to do so. it's exhausting.
warnings; like. suicidal ideation if you SQUINT. otherwise all good in the hood !!!!
a/n; hi gang. guess who's never published on tumblr before (mee !! it's me !!!!) so if this is formatted horribly or just generally ass. give me grace. i am learning. this game actually has me rolling around like a lunatic bouncing off the walls it is SO scrumptious . idek how to tag this it's such a niche piece of writing LMFAO. to all seven tup fans out there if you've seen this on ao3 no you have not !! haha. what are you talking about. anyways.
â â â
Your days always begin with chaos.Â
The sun never sets, which in turn means your sleep schedule isnât defined by night and day, but is instead defined by when you can no longer will yourself to keep moving. Your hours of nonstop work are often ended by the loud thump of your body hitting your mattress. The curtains close. Fade to black.Â
The Under never slows down. There are always a million Timesprites buzzing about, breaking things and summoning things and throwing shit around. When the âopen for eternityâ business model of the Under meets your struggling sleep schedule, there is no good time to wake up. Shit is always going down. Or up, depending on how much magic the Timesprites manage to throw around. It doesnât really matter which direction itâs going. Youâll still be tasked with cleaning it up.Â
The absence of rest is horrible news for you, but great news for the MC, who practically writhes whenever thereâs not something exciting happening for him to watch. Youâve watched him bounce around spacetime far longer than any other Timesprite has, and the entire time youâve never seen him slow. Heâs an unstoppable force. Youâre just the unlucky thing heâs dragging along.Â
Heâs a peculiar manâ if you can even call him thatâ one youâve tried to unravel for however long youâve been in the Under. The two of you are certainly close, youâve spilled your guts to him several times in the lulls between work. Your work, it should be specified. Youâre not sure heâs ever applied himself to any situation. Ever.Â
Exhausted, and sometimes drunk, youâll talk talk talk. Sometimes youâll tell him you love him and you hate him and you wish you were dead, but most times itâs just yearning. You want to go back home. He looks around your room as you talk yourself to sleep, gaze drifting from the items youâve found and been gifted from Timesprites. Heâll finally look at you when you finally go silent and wonder if heâs condemned you despite your innocence. Then heâs gone.Â
The promise of eternity tends to force feelings out of a person like that, but he never discusses anything of his past. You have your theories of course, the same ones whispered amongst the actors and Timesprites, but nothingâs ever certain.Â
You hear the whispers about him. You hear just about every damn word uttered in the space you look over, so itâs no wonder youâre in on all of the gossip. The loyalties, the betrayals, all of the silly little factions and groups that waddle about, all of the buzz floats around the space like nothing. But when the discussions grow quieter, and the heads tilt down, you can tell the topicâs changed. You lower your head too and near the muttering. You have your two cents, after all.Â
I heard someone talking backstage, Sean muttered, turning to you as you handed him his blazer behind the curtain. Talking about Him. They said that when he gets bored with the acts, he just turns them to mud. You laughed at that, and this seemed to ease Seanâs mind a little. Youâre the one that knows the most around here, the source of comfort for the acts and the residents that risk fading away. The highest rung on the ladder people genuinely trust. Most of them just want to go home. You gave up that a long time ago. You watched Seanâs eyes crease into a soft smile as he threw his blazer on. Kind of funny, huh? You nodded, peeling back the curtain for him and watching him walk on stage, the smile slowly fading from your lips.Â
The MC is usually the one to wake you up, letting you know about a situation unfolding somewhere in the Main Stage before it gets too bad. Heâs the one to wake you up today.Â
Thereâs a knock at your door, and you turn in your bed, staring at a poster on the wall. Itâs an artistâs rendition of Gerald. Oh, how youâd kill for a day without a mention of that fucking dolphin.
You meditate on your hatred for a second. It slowly slips away as your eyes drift closed.
Thereâs the knock again, and this time, the MCâs voice carries under the door. âThe chandelier broke.â He announces unceremoniously, handing you the first task of the day. âNot the hour this time, a Timespriteââ
âYeah.â You blurt, stretching and fumbling for your mask beside you. âYeah, Iâll get on it.â
âYouâre great.â He praises, but you can tell by his tone itâs not something he really means. You think about suffocating yourself in your pillow. âIâll be around.â
Thereâs a noise from outside, a light whoosh, and you figure heâs gone.Â
You wonder how exactly the chandelier broke. You wonder what exactly âbrokeâ entails. You wonder if he just stood there and watched it happen.
He probably did.Â
You know he did.Â
You slink out of bed with a long sigh.
You throw the mirror a sideways glance, then let your gaze linger for a few more moments as you sling your robe over your shoulders. When you try to remember what you looked like in the Over, youâre usually unsuccessful. So instead, you stare at the form youâve been granted, simple and lifeless. Whatever grip you had on what you once were seems to slip away.
â â â
Standing over the foyer from one of the above balconies, itâs easy to tell what happened with the chandelier. You think about how âThe Chandelier fell and crushed four dining tables,â would have been a more accurate statement.Â
A giant onion lays a few yards away from the mess of crystal, sparkling shards sticking out and catching the lights from the stage.
âSomebody threw a big ass onion at the chandelier,â would have also sufficed.Â
Go fucking figure. Granted, itâs something you probably would have done when you were still green. When your mask was a toy and the whole Under was yours to explore.
You take your mask off and drag a hand down your face before getting to work.
The few Timesprites that notice and recognize you as you step into the foyer take a moment to fix a few plates and vases with you, but as soon as you turn to assess the chandelier, they all seem to conveniently scatter. Much to your dismay, the entire chandelier doesnât fit on the inside of your mask.Â
The magic in the building isnât buzzing like it usually is at the top of the hour, so the job is much harder to do. You finally make the decision to shrink the chandelier in order to fit it onto your mask and repair it then, before blowing it back up again and fixing it up to the ceiling. It takes a good moment for you to figure all this out, including how the hell to rig it back up to where it had fallen from, but after a long moment of sweat and tears and cursing so loud the performers on stage pause to watch, the foyer is free of broken glass and fallen chandeliers.Â
Thereâs a brief moment of quiet. The only thanks the Under will ever give you.
As you turn to go backstage, you watch a Timesprite chuck an onion at Apple Pie Bundy.Â
You thank the Timesprite under your breath and slip into the shadows behind the curtain.
â â â
The MC looks over at you from the small model hotel that heâs inspecting. Your offer for another Timeloop, one youâd snatched up and polished with Colemanâs help. You were proud of it. Everything was ironed out and ready to be put on display for the guests. All he had to do was nod.
He stares at you for a moment, watching you stand there, entirely still, expectant. Eager. You, at least, still have a purpose in this place, even if itâs just doing what youâre told. Though youâll never be able to tell, he enjoys watching you flit around, snapping at the guests and the actors, disbanding whatever mess is stirring up before the whole building comes down. Whatâs left of it, at least.
You think the fire inside you is down to an ember, but he disagrees. He sees it when you yell, and when you cuss, and when you come to him after a tireless day of work and babble nonsense about the Over.Â
He watches it flare up whenever a new act is brought in, your efforts to accommodate whichever poor soul is trapped here. He watches you care, and something in him starts to do the same.Â
âYouâre going to work yourself to death.â He chimes. You stifle a groan as he quickly juts off-topic. âI almost didnât wake you up this morning. I wanted to see what would happen if you got a full night's rest.â
âYouâre the one who watched it happen.â You mutter, eyes flicking down to the hotel you wish heâd focus on. âYou could have saved me the trouble and stopped it.â
He just shrugs, mask perking up to the door as the opening notes of Wet Food carry in from down the hall. He stares out for a moment as he listens. âEveryone seemed to be having a good time. Iâm not one to stop guests from having their fun.â
You struggle to find cohesion in whatever point heâs trying to make. âMhm.â
Heâs never been a buzzkill, this you know. A bit of a suck up, at least to the Timesprites, letting them do anything they want as long as they have their fun and sing praises to the place.Â
âMy point isââ He chimes, turning back to you. âYouâre worrying too much about everything. In a place like this, things are always happening. People are just having fun.â He waves a hand through the air with purpose, as if itâs proving his point even more. âYou need to relax.â
âIâve done everything else. The only thing left for me to do is worry.âÂ
He pauses at that, then looks down at the small hotel in his hands. For once, heâs out of witty banter.
âSorry.â You blurt, even though youâre not entirely sure what youâre sorry for. Thereâs an awkward silence that has you shifting your weight between your feet.Â
âTell me about the hotel.âÂ
âOhââ You perk up, looking down at the hotel and then up at him. Right. ââit starts when a storm comes through the Florida Keys.â
â â â
Scratch stands beside you as you watch the MC introduce an act on stage. The two of you watch his form saunter around the spotlight with little amusement. The charisma wears off after a few years. He recycles jokes. He laughs at nothing to fill silence. His confidence is becoming very quickly aggravating.Â
You turn to Scratch, taking a sip of your drink. âWhatâs the thing you miss most?â
âFrom the Over?âÂ
You nod, and he leans back on his heels, letting out a hum as he thinks. âMy hair.â Â
You laugh at that. Good answer.
He turns to face you fully, echoing your question back at you. âWhat do you miss the most?â
You know your answer. âGenuine nature, I think. Like, actual birds and trees and stuff. Not⌠artificial.â
He nods, humming in approval. âYou should rig a little something something, get a Timeloop in the forest somewhere.â He nudges you with his elbow, and you grin. You could if you wanted to, but youâre not sure how much that would console you. It would be the same as a window from a prison cell. You can look out, but youâll always be trapped.Â
The curtains part, and you both stare at Helvetica and Tina as they do the same act theyâve performed for what you can only assume has been years. Thereâs a long beat before Scratch speaks.
âYou donât think weâve all died and gone to hell, do you?â
Youâre not entirely paying attention to him anymore. The question catches you off guard. âHm?â
Scratch turns to face you fully. âWhat if this is hell?â
You shake your head. Youâve thought about this, too. âPeople can get out of here. Thereâs always the opportunity to leave.â He tilts his head at that, and you continue. âYou know, really die. Turn to mud, rest your soul. All that shit. They donât have that in hell.â
He considers this for a moment, before turning back to the stage. Itâs hard to read a skeletonâs face, but you can assume he probably understands. Silence settles over you as you both watch the act. He draws a breath like heâs about to say something but stops before anything leaves his mouth. Another bout of silence. You can tell thereâs something he wants to ask, and youâre almost certain you know what it is.Â
âCan you die?âÂ
There it is.
You draw a breath, a shaky one, and he turns again to make sure heâs not said anything wrong. Youâre still watching the act as you shake your head.
âNope.â
â â â
You had a habit of telling yourself you werenât really tired until it was too late. Usually a staff member would help you to your room, but this time around, itâs the MC who youâre stumbling down the hall with. He watches you in silence as you fumble with your doorknob three, four, five times before the door finally opens.Â
You collapse onto the bed. âThanks.â You mutter into your pillow, not even bothering to shed your cloak as you quickly go still.
He closes the door, leaning into it as it shuts. âGood night.âÂ
He doesnât sleep like you do, or drink, or eat. Dreadfully human things, something neither the acts nor a large lot of the Timesprites do.Â
Despite the drastic differences, there was still solidarity between everybody else there. They were all in the shit together, thanks to him. Somebody had to keep it all running, had to keep the chaos at bay, and that someone just so happened to be you.
He figures if you had been brought in later, it probably wouldnât have unfolded the way it did. If he had brought in any one else before you, you probably wouldnât have been brought in at all. There was nothing interesting about you, at least not in the way that most people were in the Under. You couldnât sing or dance or perform. You werenât anything extravagant, you just were.Â
The reason your unlabeled job had been handed to you was dumb luck. You were the first human brought into the Under, but you werenât picked with any intention. You were here before Timesprites. Before anyone else but him. Before heâd really cracked the system, and before he had any clue what he was doing.Â
You were a first attempt, a shoddy and misguided try. His first reach into the Over, just to see what would happen, and he happened to grab onto you.
It was a long time of adjusting, of course, but after a while you settled into the place and took it upon yourself to manage the things that he seemed to not care about at all. You coordinated the acts and helped log the staff, you shuffled around and handled all of the dirty work around the Under that he was too distracted to even think about doing.
He wonders, for a moment, if the Under could take a break. Just for a dayâ maybe an Over holiday or otherwiseâ to let you sleep in. A day where the chandelier doesnât fall and the curtain never opens to serve as the âthank youâ heâll never say to your face.Â
Thereâs a moment of silence as he slows in the hallway, and then he chuckles to himself.Â
What a ludicrous idea.
The show must go on, and youâll just have to come along with it.
I don't know what any of the heat measurements mean.
No in between. Reblog if you vote pleas
And they look out so hard for the well being of the spiders AND the dolphins
well than here you go
I imagine it would not be fun to watch your child turn to stone.
WOOP WOOP SO PROUD OF THIS. I spent like 5 whole days on it so Iâd appreciate a reblog hehe.
My account is called the telekinetic frog because. I'm a frog with telekinesis. So uhh
zeekayart, with the power of phonetic pronunciation of letters, and general art snobbery!
I honestly just saw "follow me" mentioned, and followed you
So I just saw a post by a random personal blog that said âdonât follow me if we never even had a conversation beforeâ and?????? Not to be rude but literally what the fuck??????????
Iâve had people (non-pornbots) try to strike conversation out of nowhere in my DMs recently, and now Iâm wondering if they were doing that because they wanted to follow me and thought they needed to interact first. I feel compelled to say, just in case, that itâs totally okay to follow this blog (or my side blog, for that matter) even if weâve never talked before.
Also, Iâm legit confused. Is this how follow culture works right now? It was worded like itâs common sense but is that really a thing?
Reblog if you have EVER been affected negatively in ANY way by school so I can show this to my teacher.
Can't find any though
I would be up for a battle, but I have run out of "power points", and am to tired to use my moves. Can you help?
eat a leppa berry
*climbs out of a vent with Kaladi's* What did I miss?
if shes your girl then why have i slowly been replacing her parts until thereâs nothing left of her original body? is she then still your girl?