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Tenna had a secret, a dark little dirty secret that no one in TV World knew. Tenna figured Mike knew when he first came home, but he had come to realize he had them fooled as well.
He was a fraud; he wasn't a CRT or any sort of electronic darkner at all.
No, no, Tenna was simply a pippins piloting a mechanical suit.
A long, long time ago, Ante had been brought to TV World. Saved from certain death by Asriel's kindness and brought home safe. Given a new home and purpose after he could not complete his old one any longer.
He had been taken in by the Lord of Screens, a powerful shapeshifter with the ability to fill the lead role of any show, given a simple job that kept him alive.
But then one night, shortly after he came to TV World, the Lord of Screens vanished. He had already been slowly petrifying, and now the rest of the world wasn't far behind him. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Ante built himself a new body out of metal and magic, large enough to fit inside and comfortably pilot. And made his debut, he was Mr. (Ant) Tenna, the very embodiment of TV World, and you either got on board with his program or you got out.
It worked! Not only did Tenna live, he thrived! His mechanical body gained a powerful magic all its own, allowing him to manipulate and control TV World itself. It wasn't enough to truly save the world; he wasn't true royalty, but it kept him and a few others safe.
Better still, he had help. Spamton helped him run the show with the help of his mysterious benefactor. It was as if TV World still had royalty and was not just a pair of common darkners trying to make it big. Not that Spamton knew he wasn't royal.
And at night, he would stash his body in his room and sneak around unhindered. One day, a zapper came up to Tenna. Told him that there was a group of new darkners causing trouble. And in that zapper's hand was, of all things, a red pippins. How long had it been since he had seen another of his kind? A decade? More?
All it did was make him all the more careful; after all, it was common knowledge what pippins were like.
When Spamton abandoned him, he begged for someone, anyone, to help him! He begged for the true Lord of Screens to return. He would be good. He wouldn't break things. He promised! he never tried to be bad.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
It was back to school season in TV World. The lightners attention grew dim. He spent First Day locked away inside his room, like always; he saw no point in leaving. Mike had left for the night, having read Tenna a bedtime story and left to do whatever Mike did whenever Tenna was asleep. Darkeners didn't need sleep, but Tenna was infamous for doing so.
Ante had made a critical error in his plans; he normally stashed food in his room if he knew he was going to stay inside, but this year, he had forgotten. Begrudgingly, Ante opened the hatch in the mech's chest and crawled out. He needed to eat something with his actual mouth. He could eat in costume, but it was nowhere near as filling.
His preferred break room had been closed for renovations. He went to the break room closer to Mike's room instead. He wanted to avoid Mike. Mike wouldn't be happy if he found out Ante of all darkners was still around.
He looked back and forth, confirming there was nobody inside, and slowly crept into the room and grabbed a snack. It was only on the way out that he saw them.
“You know, there's free food in the west wing of the studio tonight, right?” the green pippins said. Why were they green???
“The west wing was just shut down for the year. Why would there be food there!” There was a more pressing issue: nobody except him and Mike was supposed to be in this part of the studio at night. “Why are you here? The studio is closed.”
“I'm maintenance. Mike hired me. Why are you here?”
“Well, Tenna hired me to… inspect… the breakrooms.” Great job, Ante.
“Tenna hired you. To sneak around and “inspect” break rooms.”
“Yes.”
“Right… I'm gonna have to verify that later,” the pippins said.
“And Tenna will confirm I'm supposed to be here!” he said confidently.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The first thing Tenna did the next morning was check if that green pippins really was supposed to be there. He found not only did TV Times have a pippins working overnight, but a zapper and a shadow guy too!
Tenna forged a contract for himself and backdated it shortly after he took over. Mike never brought it up with him, so Tenna figured his cover was secure. He didn't leave his room out of costume just to be safe, but eventually he started getting restless.
Ante once again snuck through the halls of TV World. It felt all the more nerve-racking now that he knew there were more darkners here, but he just couldn't sit still any longer.
He thought he was in the clear, snack in hand, when he was scruffed, lifted off his feet, and brought eye to eye with Cowboy Hat Mike.
“I know you forged that contract,” Mike said slowly and deliberately.
“No, of course not, why would you think that!!” The contract was perfect! No flaws, he had written and signed a hundred of them!
“You used the wrong revision; you dated it back from when Spamton was cohosting, but used the modern contract.”
“Well, you see…” Ante really was screwed, caught red-handed. Everyone was going to know. Know he was a fraud, a pippins of all things. He struggled to break free from Mike's grasp. Mike never liked Ante. The least he could do was go down fighting.
“Calm down, we're willing to cut you a deal.”
What. Tenna froze. A deal? Since when did Mike negotiate with him?
Mike sighed, “I'm not the best one to explain this, just… give me a minute to change, ok?”
No! Tenna knew what Mike was going to do. He wanted to become Small Mike. He could only imagine what Small Mike would say to him. Tenna loved Small Mike; he really did, but Ante knew of all Mike's new forms, he was the one who was the most similar to the old Mike and would surely dole out the harshest punishment.
“No! No, it's fine. You can explain. I can understand you just fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep, definitely one hundred percent!”
“…Well, we were thinking of putting you on maintenance. It's either that or finding you a place on the day shift.”
“That's it?’
“Yeah, were youse expecting something else?”
“No, that's fine. Thanks, Mike.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Tenna begrudgingly followed Mike to one of the stages. The green pippins that started it all was determinedly cleaning the floor with a mop and bucket.”
“Hey, Batts found the new guy,” Mike said casually.
“Oh, finally. Ante right? Grab a second mop and help me with this” battat pointed.
Do I really have to do this?” He asked.
“Look you, me and every other pippins here would be out frolicking in the Scarlet Forest if we could. But this is TV World, you've got to work just like the rest of us. Hey, trust me, you lucked into a really good position.”
“A janitor? You call being a janitor good?”
“It's more than being a janitor. It's repairing the set and the costumes, being the grease that holds this whole place together.”
“Doesn't Mike do that?” Tenna asked. He looked back at Mike, who was just standing there awkwardly.
“Mike works with Tenna,” Mike said, “I'm only one guy… I uh needed assistants?”
“Exactly,” Battat agreed. “Mike here needed help, and me, Pluey, and Jongler offered to help him. Mike gets all the credit, but it pays really well, and now you're part of the team.”
“Yeah, what he said,” Mike nodded.
Tenna and Battat spent the night cleaning. He was introduced to Pluey the shadow guy and Jongler the zapper. The maintenance team ran on a very efficient schedule, and Tenna felt like his head was spinning.
It felt like forever and no time at all before he was allowed to leave.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Despite his best efforts, he wasn't able to get out of his new job. Now that both Mike and his assistants knew he was here, he would be tracked down if he didn't show up. It was better to just come in than to risk small Mike sticking his head in Tenna’s room searching for him again.
Currently, he was trying to learn how to sew. Jongler was off doing something else. Zapper hands were not good at such delicate work. He would argue neither were pippinses carapaced 3 clawed hands, but watching how fast Batat worked, he didn't protest too much.
Remind me again why Mike doesn't just do this themself?” Ante asked.
“As I've told you before, they're busy with Tenna.”
“Tennas asleep”
“Then they're just busy. Why do you keep asking me this anyways? It's not like He would be able to do this any faster than I would!” Battat shouted
“Yes, they can, they can just snap their fingers and BAM! Fixed!”
“...no?”
“Yes! They ruled over TV World before Tenna did! I've seen them do it!”
Battat went silent; Battat never went silent. He was always moving, shifting, talking enough to rival small Mike.
“Mike WAS WHAT!!!” Battat whiped around and grabbed his shoulders. “YOU'VE MET MIKE?? TELL ME EVERYTHING!!”
“You know Mike? You work for him?”
“You knew him before.”
“Ah, I guess I did? He didn't like me very much. I was always messing things up, breaking them. I never meant to, but back in those days, there were no scripts, no guidance; if you didn't know what you were doing, you were as good as stone.”
Pluey made a harsh, off-key sound. Right, a shadow guy would also remember Mike.
“That wasn't Mike,” Pluey weezed, “that was Tenna. Tenna used to shape shift, but when Spamton came, he stuck to one form and name. Changed everything about how the studio was run. Then, when Spamton left, he became all glooby had hasent changed back. He became so harsh on everyone. And the instructions he gave were nonsense. Things only started getting better once Mike showed up!”
“Tennas not glooby! He's groovy! That mailman didn't get to him at all! And Tenna is a great director!”
“How would you even know that? You disappear during the day,” Battat said.
“Maybe you just don't see me! It's not like I've seen you out during filming.” Ante countered, battat stuck out amongst the red pippinses that had been brought to TV World. He would remember seeing him before.
He didn't know what he said, but Pluey’s head snapped to look at him. Really look at him in a way that made Ante think that he had figured it out. But why would he ever even think of that?
Then Pluey chuckled and turned to Battat.
“I hang out with you too much,” he said.
“HEY! What's that supposed to mean?”
“It means I need normal friends.” Pluey tossed a spool of red thread at Battat.
The two of them dissolved into the sort of bickering that only close friends could do, making references and jokes to things Ante had no context for. It was good background noise nonetheless.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The next day, when he saw Small Mike handing over the costumes that he now knew Battat and Pluey worked on, he made sure that the proper darkners got credit.
“Give your maintenance crew my thanks, Mike,” He said.
“W-what. Oh! Yeah, I will, of course, whatever you say, boss!” Mike babbled.
Later that day, he tore his suit at one point. Rather than calling Mike right away, he decided to try something. Battat had made a good point. Why didn't Tenna ever fix things with just the snap of his fingers? He had been assuming Mike still held that ability. But maybe it was his now. He ran his finger along the ripped edge and tried to picture the weaving in and out motion of a needle and thread held by small, clawed hands. It seemed to be working the tear closing. And almost giddy with his new ability, the rest of the day sped by.
It was only after he left the mech that he saw that the tear had not been fixed cleanly but smudged away, the threads that had originally made up the outfit disappearing into each other as they got closer and closer to the original tear.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Time passed, summer started, and TV Time got more and more busy, Ante got closer to the maintenance crew. He hadn't realized until then how much he missed having friends who saw him as an equal. Spamton had, and he used to have friends back before…
“You're feeling glooby today, aren't you?” Battat asked.
“What! No, I'm never glooby!” Ante exclaimed.
“Well, something's on your mind.”
“I guess I'm just reminiscing. You bring up stories from Card Kingdom sometimes, and I can't help but wonder if anyone I know is still there.”
Battat and the other pippins were younger than he was. It was a thought he had buried deep, deep down. Card Kingdom took a live fast, die young approach to life. It was inevitable when their lighters were as harsh as they were.
“Well, Seams super old, did you know them?”
“Seams still alive? That's wonderful,” Ante perked up. Seam and Jevil had always been the life of the party, getting into mischief where they could. They often spent time with the pippins, seeing them as kindred spirits.
“Yeah, they always had sweets and old stories for us. I miss them.”
“Was jevil still around? I can't imagine one without the other.”
“I never met the guy.”
“That's a shame, he was such a fun guy. I wish I could have been there to comfort Seam. They were there for me when…”
Ante had first had experience with how fast toys could break; he had been made as part of a pair. Two twin dice who were rarely seen apart. up until the moment when one of the lighters decided on nothing but a whim to chew on his twin, unbalancing them so badly they almost immediately petrified. And he was marked for certain death as well. His purpose was to work alongside his twin; the lightners would surely dispose of him now.
But then he was saved. Asriel, dear sweet Asriel, had saved him, taken him home, and stashed him safely in a drawer directly under the most important centerpiece in the room. He was safe now. TV was timeless, eternal!
“It's just not fair, the power that the lightners have over us! That they can just kill us in an instant. Or warp us beyond our purpose! On a whim! It's not like they are all like that, either. Kris and Asriel are different; they care.”
“...how are Kris and Asriel any different from any other lightner Card Kingdom served?”
“They don't break darkners!”
“Are you kidding? Have you ever met Kris? Kris is wonderful, exhilarating to play with, but they are rough. They decided on a whim to take every red pippinses in Card Kingdom home. Just the red ones, no clue why! Then they decided on a whim to make me weighted and paint me green! It messed up my balance! They didn't even do it right! When's the last time you actually talked to a pippins besides me? You've clearly internalized Tennas pippinist bullshit.”
“Tennas not pippinist,” He defended. He wasn't. Pippins always screwed things up; he learned that fast when he came to TV World. Messed up things again and again. He disappointed Mike so badly.
He messed up the studio so badly that Mike had to come back out of retirement. He's lucky Mike has been so nice lately. It couldn't last forever; eventually, he would realize what Ante had been doing and would take control back for himself.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Before he knew it, a year had passed, and the kids were once again going back to school. That meant they would have less time for TV, less time for Tenna.
He had holed up in his room. Cat Mike had already heard all about his woes. This was by far the worst time of the year.
He heard someone shouting his name in the distance over and over again. The last thing he wanted to do was get up, but if Battat was shouting loud enough to hear it from Tenna’s room, it must be important.
He trudged out to meet Battat, who seemed all too excited to see him, practically jumping up and down with excitement
“Ante! Happy First Day!”
Oh, right, today was the largest holiday back in Card Kingdom.
“Happy First Day.” He muttered half heartedly.
“Come on, you can't just be a hermit that lives in the studio forever; we've got to get you some real friends.”
“You have friends?” Jongler chimed in
“Hey! I HAVE a social life. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to work on First Day!”
“It's definitely not,” Ante said
“Well then, I'm going to have Mike outlaw working on First Day! One day a year where everyone gets the day off!”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The west wing of the studio was shut down during the school year. Less work meant they didn't need it running. Apparently, “shut down” did not mean “not used.” If anything, this was the liveliest he had ever seen it. Pippins, zappers, and shadowguys all intermingled, laughing and singing. It wasn't all that much like the first day celebrations back home, it resembled the carnivals that Cyber City held more than anything.
Battat led him through the studio, pointing out the booths and activities that were available.
“There are improv shows on the stage.”
“And over that way are the games. Pippinses run a lot of those. Always a blast!”
“And last is the food, maybe you should make sure it's up to code, Mr.Food Inspector.”
“Ha ha” Ante deadpaned.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Ante walked around the carnival in a daze. Why would anyone want to honor First Day, not here. Sure, in Card Kingdom, it was the day that the lightners came back. Three months of little to no contact with the lightners broken in an instant. It was also the first day that many darkners were awake. Having been brought in during the summer, and awoken with the influx of attention.
Here, First Day signaled the start of the lean months; most of TV World's lightners got much busier and stopped watching TV.
“What are we even celebrating? There's no dark candy flowers, no first rainfall, no name ceremonies, what's even the point?”
“A job well done? Having more free time? A day to make fun for ourselves, by ourselves. I think the zappers have made a whole stage production their planning on showing this year, we could never do that for the lightners.”
“…We could watch that”
“Yes! Ok, I was planning on meeting up with my siblings. I'll introduce you.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The stage was normally used for the studio's production, but today all of the recording equipment was put away in favor of making more places for darkners to sit. Ante found himself surrounded by familiar yet foreign chatter. The pippinses all looked the same, Battat being the only exception with his green coloring.
“Guys, this is Ante. He's been working with the maintenance team for the past year,” Battat said.
“So, your Ante. We've heard so much about you! Well, when Battat decides to visit, at least. Are you still too busy working for the boss to hang out with us?” One pippins said.
“Are you the same ante from seams old stories?” said another.
“I probably am,” Ante said.
“Is it true that one time you got drunk and then tried to convince the kings that you were Jevil?”
Ante chuckled nervously. That did sound like something he did once, with one key difference.
“No, seam swapped my and Jevils' clothes and dared us to pretend to be each other,” Ante said.
“How long did you manage to keep it up for?” Battat asked, sounding curious.
“I think we got caught instantly, we WERE drunk, but nobody called us out until the next day.”
“Did Seam really tell you to do it? That doesn't sound like them.”
“They were just as bad as the rest of us, I'm telling you! One time, Jevil dared him to jump off the castle, and he DID it.”
“Whoa! Really!”
There was some more general chatter as the pippins traded old stories. him spilling seams embarrassing past, and them telling him about the things he had missed. He missed this. He didn't know how he had forgotten how nice it was to just share gossip with other pippins. Eventually, though, the conversation moved towards stories from TV World
“One time, Tenna told me to “polish the whatzits.” What the hell is a whatzit??” One pippins said.
“How do you not know what a whatzit is? You've been here for what, 5 years now?” Ante said.
“Ok then, wize guy YOU tell me what a whatzit is,” the pippins responded.
Ante froze up. He didn't know what a whatzit was either, or how to polish one. It was something Mike used to tell him to do.
“Guys. Calm down, you’re going to interrupt the show,” Battat said.
“Well then, maybe pippins just aren't able to know what whatzits are then. Someone's got to be doing it!” Ante said.
“What's that supposed to mean!” the pippins shouted.
“It means that pippins are ALWAYS breaking things! They can't follow simple instructions! And are always slacking off!”
“Says the guy who doesn't even work at the studio!”
“I work at the studio!”
“Oh yeah? What do you do, just repeat the garbage Tenna’s always spewing at us?”
“No! I work for maintenance, you know that.”
“Yeah, when Tenna's asleep. Bet you ten bucks you've never even been in the same room as the guy!”
“Shut up, both of you! People are staring!” Battat cut in getting between them.
Battat grabbed onto Ante's wrist and dragged him out of the room and over to a secluded corner.
“What is wrong with you? I've been telling them you're cool, and then you flip out like that? They were right, you really sound just like Tenna.”
“WHAT? No, why would you say that?” Ante said nervously. “And even if I did, who doesn't want to be like tenna! He's perfect!”
Battat paused, opened his mouth, then closed it and looked Ante up and down.
“Are you kidding me right now? You've been tenna this whole time? How did I not see it earlier? It's so obvious."
“I’m not Tenna, how would that even work! Tenna secretly being a pippins? Why would you even think that” tenna babbled, visibly panicked, but surely battat would see reason.
“No, I'm sorry you don't get to pull that with me.”
Ante deflated; he could see battat well and truly saw through his disguise.
“You’re not going to tell everyone right, the studio would fall apart.”
“No, I'm not going to go public with this. Let's get home, and we can actually figure out what we're going to do. I was already doing my best to keep Tenna in line before, but there's only so much a person can do to stop royalty from throwing a hissy fit.
“A hissy fit, what's that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you are always giving people nonsense instructions and then freak out when people can't do it! There's no such thing as a whatzit or a doo-zit, you made those up,” battat hissed, jabbing his finger into Antes' chest
“No, I didn't! Mike used to tell me to do that all the time! You're lucky he doesn't get mad anymore, or not like he used to anyways…”
Battat reared back like he had been struck. Opening and closing his mouth, Ante could tell Battat was mad but was holding himself back.
“Don’t tell Mike,” Ante whispered.
Battat flinched; he gently took Ante's hand and started leading him back towards the center of the studio.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Ante noted as they reached Mike's room that Battat never said he wouldn't tell Mike. Battat had been muttering angrily the whole way back, but Ante couldn't catch a single word.
Ante expected Battat to knock, but he simply entered the code to Mike's room and went inside confidently. The inside of Mike's room loomed large around Ante. He had only been here as Tenna.
He saw Cat Mike lying on his back with a spotlight acting as a sunbeam. He perked up when he saw Ante and waved enthusiastically. Then he saw cowboy hat Mike walking around a corner
“Oh, are we finally telling him that we're Mike?” Cowboy Hat Mike said
Battat made a sound like a boiling kettle snapped his fingers. A full blown conspiracy board dropped down from the ceiling. Ante barely caught a glimpse of what was on it before Battat dragged his claws down the center of the whole thing. A piece of paper fluttered by his feet, it was titled “Mike from cyber world???”
“Whoa, WHOA, boss, what's going on?” Cowboy Hat Mike said, scruffing Battat like a kitten.
“Ante is Tenna, and if I ever see the Real Mike, I'm punching that asshole in the face.”
“Real Mike?” Ante asked.
Cat Mike waved, catching his attention before lifting his mask and revealing Pluey's shadowy face underneath.
“Oh.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The Mike conspiracy board had been cleared off. In its place, a simple heading, “TV World Management Plan,” had been placed.
Jongler had taken off their Mike costume, but Pluey had simply pulled off the microphone hands, feet, and bowtie.
“Like I said earlier, now that I know we're on equal footing, I can't just keep letting you run the studio like you are now. The first thing is figuring out what Mike told you and how much was true and how much was what I suspect was active sabotage. From there, we can actually make an official four way delegation of tasks. Does that sound like a plan?”
“Yeah, I can work with that,” Ante agreed. This was so far away from what he thought was possible. He was afraid of what this would mean for the studio. It was different then what he normally felt, more anticipatory and less dread.