Work Text:
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PM 06:03:22
2143 🔋
“Alright, see you later.”
Click.
Robert put the landline back on the wall and stretched his arms. He had to come back from work a little earlier so there was still time to get ready for tonight, but he only ever had a small role on set so he was sure they didn’t mind.
About an hour to go until he needed to be there; that was pretty good, honestly. He still needed to get changed and, y’know, actually get there, but that part wouldn’t take too long. He’d just been on the phone with Exterminator checking the travel arrangements.
Exterminator was gonna be driving, and he’d be home in about half an hour. He was the only one any of them trusted to drive, even though he forgot that speed limits were a thing the first time they were in a car with him. After picking up everyone who was in the house he’d pick up Romeo and Chad on the way, and William and Ms Gilbert would meet them all there.
Everything should be good. Time to go get changed, then.
Robert went upstairs to his room. Even with so many of them in the house, Ms Gilbert managed to find them a place on the outskirts of the city with enough bedrooms for all of them. They did have to repurpose an office and a downstairs room into additional bedrooms, but it was a decent arrangement, Robert couldn’t complain. He was thankful Ms Gilbert was being so helpful to them even though he felt like she really didn’t have to.
And Robert was finding more and more ways that his camcorder came in handy, rather than it being an inconvenience. Who needed a mirror when you could get a third person perspective of yourself trying on different outfits?
Eventually he settled on something casual but not too casual, a plain shirt and jeans, just as he heard something moving around downstairs.
He didn’t see anyone else while he was on the phone down there.
Weird.
Robert took his camcorder back and left his room to go investigate. He tilted its lens around the corner before his body followed, and saw that it was just Mr Cicle grabbing a glass from the kitchen cupboard and filling it with water.
“Wow, you’re pre-drinking already?” Robert smiled and stepped into the kitchen. The other man was in a formal shirt and trousers, which was about as casual as he got.
Mr Cicle laughed, “I hope nobody’s planning on getting drunk tonight. I didn’t think it was that kind of event.”
“No, just a bit of a catch up. William said the cheese stakes are supposed to be pretty good, though.”
Mr Cicle nodded and sipped his drink, “I guess this is a bit of an anniversary, isn’t it? I think it’s been about a month since we all got here.”
“Yeah, think so,” Robert glanced over to a calendar they had hung on a wall. In that time it didn’t feel like much had happened, which was honestly a relief. The universe hadn’t exploded, so all those brainless clones they made after getting here must’ve done the job of balancing out all the matter in their original worlds.
Goobleck had stayed long enough to transport all the clones, then went back to whatever world it must’ve originally been from. Hopefully not causing any more chaos.
And after saving the universe, they’d…gotten jobs. They didn’t want Ms Gilbert to need to keep paying the rent for them, and it was something to do while they figured out their place in this new world. Robert figured he’d be of some use on a film set, and managed to get a place as a runner on some small local TV show. That mainly meant he was just running around grabbing coffees and helping where he could, nothing to do with the actual cameras yet, but he was sure he could make his way up.
Mr Cicle was a waiter at a nearby restaurant, nothing too fancy but he did get to wear a waistcoat for the uniform. Which was actually fairly fancy by Robert’s standards. C watered plants and did some other odd jobs at a garden center, and Exterminator worked in a store that sold survivalist supplies like knives, walking boots, tinned food and anything that anyone preparing for an apocalypse could ever want. Apparently he was pretty good at giving recommendations to customers.
And meanwhile to all that, William and Ms Gilbert had apparently stopped a giant meatball thing from destroying the planet, Ms Gilbert had gone to space at one point and William had made a new friend called Ash who brought him to the astral plane, or something like that, and William had maybe also double died but he was fine now.
So yeah. Everyone was back to living their normal lives.
It was actually kind of nice to be living a relatively normal life in a world full of superheroes. With all the spectacular things going on around them, it became less weird for multiple people with very similar faces and voices to be out in public together. They thought they might need to do something about hiding Chuck Ectocicle in public, but even the slightly transparent guy wearing a very out of season Christmas hat didn’t get worse than a weird look every now and then.
But with them all out doing their own things, it meant this meeting tonight would be the first time in a while they were all together in the same room again. Robert was pretty excited.
“You enjoying work?” Mr Cicle asked him.
“...Yeah,” Robert shrugged, “I mean, it’s not super glamorous, but it’s something. What about you?”
Mr Cicle tilted his head and hummed for a moment, “I can’t complain either. But…do you get what I mean when I say it feels a bit, you know, boring?”
“Compared to the lives we used to have, I guess you can say that,” Robert chuckled, “don’t know if I exactly miss being chased down by monsters though.”
“Yes, this is still…better,” Mr Cicle considered.
“You looking for a career change after just a month?” Robert raised an eyebrow.
“If an opportunity presents itself, I wouldn’t say no.”
Robert supposed he didn’t really know what to say in terms of career advice. Like he kept saying, he was enjoying the normality of it. But at the same time, he did get what Mr Cicle meant. This was such a big shift from running around trying not to get killed by bugs at any given moment, it was like they’d gone from everything to nothing in an instant.
Someone knocked on the door and Robert was first to go answer it. Once open he saw Exterminator stood outside, smiling and spinning his keys around his finger. He was in a ‘vintage’ flannel jacket, which just meant pre-used. Even if he couldn’t wear his old torn up clothes, Exterminator insisted on wearing things that were already a little bit scratched up with patches or sewn up holes.
Robert looked a bit confused, “wait, why did you knock? You’ve got your keys on you.”
Exterminator shrugged, “felt a bit more dramatic to have you open it for me. You all ready to go?”
Robert checked over his shoulder, “uh, hold on, I’ll go find C and Chuck.”
Mr Cicle put his glass down and left the kitchen while Robert jogged upstairs and knocked on a door, “hey, C, ready to go?”
He got a mumbled response from the other side and heard someone shuffling around before the voice was clearer, “yeah, just a sec.”
Robert nodded to himself and wandered over to another door across the hall. Just as he was about to knock, a semi-transparent head came through it, christmas hat dangling over the top of his face, “yeah, I’m ready, I’ll meet you in the car.”
“Cool,” Robert brought back the hand he was about to use to knock on the door and turned it into an awkward thumbs up.
The ghost returned to his room, which Robert didn’t think he’d ever seen the inside of due to Chuck’s preference for going through doors literally rather than physically. That interaction had at least given C enough time to come out of his room, still in the middle of getting his arm through the sleeve of his grey jacket.
He’d ditched the bulletproof vest, after a little while. Now he tended to just wear things that were grey, white or black. Sometimes he’d put on a little bit of colour, as long as it wasn’t green.
Robert smiled at him, pointing the camcorder slightly off to the side. It took some practice to not direct the lens right at C whenever he looked his way, but he tried his best since C wasn’t subtle about the fact he didn’t like cameras.
They went downstairs together and followed Exterminator and Mr Cicle into the car, C getting in the passenger seat and Robert being together with Mr Cicle in the back. Robert took the middle seat, because he knew a moment later-
“Step on the gas, let’s go!”
-a ghost apparated in the empty window seat beside him. Exterminator rolled his eyes, “I’d rather not get the rest of us who are still alive into a car crash.”
Chuck grumbled, “boring.”
They got the car on the road and headed to their first stop, the local university. Romeo Juliet had been transported through worlds while in the middle of his university year, after all, and even though Chad Bussy definitely wasn’t school age anymore he’d apparently been held back from graduating for several years. Ms Gilbert had encouraged him to continue school in their world, hoping he’d graduate sometime soon.
When Exterminator pulled up he saw them already waiting on a bench near the entrance to the university. Romeo hopped over, Chad following at a slower pace behind. Mr Cicle got out to let the two of them get in the back row of seats, then sat back down once they were in and Exterminator got driving again.
“How’s the drama society going?” Robert asked as a means of greeting them. They were both in shirts and jeans, since there wasn’t any kind of a uniform at the university.
“I got the role!” Romeo proudly put a hand to his chest.
“Hey, good job! You’re gonna be the best tree on that stage,” Robert tried his best not to sound sarcastic.
“Yeah, and they cast me as, uh, Othello, or something? I think that’s his name,” Chad added.
Mr Cicle thought for a moment, “isn’t that, like…the name of the play?”
Chad shrugged, “I dunno, I don’t think the character’s too important, anyway. Should be easy.”
Robert and Mr Cicle exchanged a glance. The play at the end of the term might end up being…interesting.
There wasn’t much else to discuss on the way to the food place besides random smalltalk about how everyone’s days had been, and the front of the car was quiet because Exterminator was focused on going the speed limit and C didn’t tend to talk that much anyway. When the conversation died off it was a relaxed kind of silence, they were all used to each other’s company like this.
Exterminator found somewhere to park and lead their group through the city with directions from William on his phone. It wasn’t long until they got to the place, finding the inside bright and noisy with other people’s conversations, and scouted out William sat inside, in one of the bigger booths with space for all of them. He looked way too small sitting in there on his own.
Chad was the first to greet him, “hey, it’s been too long, dude!”
“Yeah, it’s gone by quick though,” William laughed sheepishly, “this is kind of just a chance to get away from it all for a moment. Feels like me and the rest of the Prime Defenders haven’t gotten a break.”
“Oh, we’ve been seeing it on the news,” Robert nodded, “it’s so cool what you guys do.”
William tilted his head, “um, it’s less flattering when you’re actually doing it. Especially with the dumb plans we always come up with.”
Robert noticed Chuck leaning towards Exterminator and could just barely hear him whisper, “if you let me possess the waiter I can get us free food.”
Exterminator tried to shove him away, forgetting that his hand would go straight through him, “don’t. We have jobs for a reason.”
Chuck pouted, “mine doesn’t pay me.”
“Because breaking into people’s houses and haunting them isn’t a job!” Exterminator insisted.
“What else am I supposed to do?” Chuck threw his hands up “I don’t have the podcast anymore, and I’m glad you guys saved me from going back to hell and all, but I wanna be doing something. What else is a guy supposed to do after he gets killed by a pipe bomb full of bombs and white phosphorus?”
“...Not haunt people? Not lower the value of the houses in our area because of paranormal activity?” Robert suggested.
Chuck looked at him like he was crazy for suggesting such a thing.
Someone else came over to their table all of a sudden and sat down without a word. Robert inched away, looking at their features concealed by sunglasses and a hoodie.
Mr Cicle peered at them while the person looked around awkwardly, “uh, can we-?”
He stopped when the person pulled their hood back, revealing recognisable orange hair. Ms Gilbert lifted up her sunglasses too and gave the table a smile.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t recognise you,” Mr Cicle corrected himself, a little embarrassed.
“Just shows the disguise works! I’m going undercover today,” Ms Gilbert sounded happy with herself. It wasn’t a particularly elaborate disguise, but to be fair to her, it did work.
“Well, it’s good for all of us to get back together again!” Romeo said.
Chad looked down at the table, “...almost all of us.”
That was right. This was everyone who’d come with Ms Gilbert and William to this world, besides one. After a few days here Big Duck had announced he was ‘going West in search of his fortune’, and they hadn’t seen him again.
“Has anyone heard anything from that guy since..?” William looked around the table but didn’t get a response.
“Wherever he is, he’s fine,” Exterminator shrugged, “he’s probably found that green gold he was always talking about.”
Robert nodded, hoping that was the case. He hadn’t really spoken to Big Duck, wrangler of the big bucks, that much, but he didn’t want anything terrible to have happened to the guy.
Well, it was still most of them that had made it here. They’d have to just try and be happy with that.
A waiter soon came over to get their orders, and thankfully didn’t get possessed in the process- Robert could see Exterminator giving Chuck nervous glances the whole time, though.
Robert turned to Mr Cicle, who was sat next to him, “oh, this is reminding me- do you still remember that thing I said on the day we got here?”
“That thing?” Mr Cicle raised an eyebrow and smiled, “I remember you saying more than one thing.”
“Well, yeah but- the thing,” Robert emphasised, but that didn’t look like it got his point across any clearer. Mr Cicle was still staring at him with a bemused look.
Eventually he sighed and offered Robert some help, “was it to do with…what we’d be doing here?”
“Oh, yeah yeah yeah!” Robert nodded, “I think I was asking if you wanted to be on a show, and I could be the cameraman.”
“Oh, you did, didn’t you,” Mr Cicle sounded like he remembered it clearer now too, “you still want to?”
Robert looked away, “Well, I’d love to, but we don’t really have a filming studio at our disposal. I was just bringing it up because I remembered it. And also, I guess, the thing you said earlier.”
“We’ll keep it in mind,” Mr Cicle chuckled.
The night went on, conversations were had, cheese steaks were eaten. It was only when they were almost getting ready to go that Ms Gilbert spoke up.
“While I have you all, and before we all go our separate ways again for however long, there was something I was going to mention,” she began. “It’s been a while now, but I was trying to figure out how all this travelling between worlds works- not that I want to cause another almost catastrophic event, but it could be useful to understand- anyways, point is, would any of you be interested in meeting again sometime next week to try to send a message to a different universe?”
Chad looked around, shocked for a second, “uh, we- we can do that?”
“Well, I don’t know, but that’s why we’re testing it! To see if it’s possible! For science!” her enthusiasm was as bright as ever.
“And this won’t end in another Goobleck tearing the universe apart situation?” Exterminator checked.
“It…shouldn’t,” she was only about half as encouraging when she said that.
Exterminator shook his head, “well, whatever. I’ll probably have work whenever you do it, so I guess I can’t stop you.”
“Uh, I wanna come see,” Robert piped up, “sounds cool.”
Most people around the table agreed, albeit some with more hesitancy. Ms Gilbert was happy enough with that response.
“Alright then! I can message you all with more details about it soon, anyway. Let’s try not to explode the universe!”
C spoke up for the first time in a long while, “please don’t jinx it.”
~
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PM 02:47:15
2143 🔋
A few days later, Robert and some of the others were gathered in a slightly intimidating lab, which Ms Gilbert was giving them the tour of. Her eyes were completely obscured by large goggles, leaving only her wide and also slightly intimidating smile as she spoke to them.
“Before Goobleck went back into its own portal, while we were still making those clones to balance out the matter between worlds, I had a little bit of time to be running some tests. We already saw what happened with hydrochloric acid,” she pointed to Chad, who looked a bit embarrassed to be singled out, “so I went for things that would be less explosive. More energy anomaly, X-ray type things.”
Ms Gilbert had insisted everything she was doing in here was very safe, but she still got everyone to put on a little bit of protective wear. Which mainly meant these big, somewhat goofy goggles they were all in. Chuck had tried to put some on but they fell right through his face, so he gave up and decided there probably wasn’t anything here that would hurt a ghost anyway. Robert didn’t feel like the goggles were enough so he put the rain cover from his bag over the camcorder, making his vision a little less clear but it was better safe than sorry, he knew from experience.
…From way too many experiences.
The only ones who hadn’t come to see whatever it was Ms Gilbert had to show them were Exterminator, Romeo and William- and, of course, Big Duck. Exterminator had work, as he’d predicted, Romeo was putting in extra time to really get into the character of being a tree, and William was out doing who-knows-what, but it was probably important.
“Now, I know most of you won’t be familiar with science that goes this in-depth,” Ms Gilbert continued, “so I’ll keep the explanation short and simple! By looking at Goobleck, we could identify what about the creature made it so linked to all these other worlds, something not present in the rest of us. It was like a tether, but also like a wave, almost like it was echolocating between the fabric of reality. Pretty cool, right?”
She grinned back at them all, and everyone returned a nervous smile. They might’ve been on a nearer level of enthusiasm if it weren’t for the weird and kind of scary vibe in this place.
There weren’t any scientists around, just Ms G and her group, and the lights in here were pretty low. They were walking past cupboards stocked with all kinds of labelled liquids and stacks of what appeared to be petri dishes, growing some strange colonies.
“So are we gonna be echolocating a message to someone else? I can’t make dolphin sounds,” Chuck told everyone.
“No, no need to actually echolocate- we’ve got the technology to do it for you!” Ms Gilbert perfectly timed her dramatic reveal, pulling a cloth from something at the back of the room they’d walked through and uncovering something that looked just like…a microphone.
It wasn’t exactly underwhelming, it was still a cool looking microphone. It seemed to have been powered up by the addition of some glowing wires feeding out from the bottom and connecting to a computer on its left that Ms Gilbert had just turned on.
“Oh, you’re speaking my language,” Chuck smiled and drifted through the air over to the microphone, excitedly tapping on it a couple times, “check check, this thing on?”
“Um, not quite,” Ms Gilbert looked preoccupied with the computer and monitor, which was displaying a whole lot of information that Robert doubted anyone in the room besides her was able to understand.
She finished typing something in and decisively pressed enter, whereupon the screen flickered for a few moments, before displaying a new line of text.
Input signal.
“...Now is it on?” Chuck reached out and tapped the microphone again.
“Technically, but you’re not transmitting anything yet,” Ms Gilbert told him, “when we properly turn this on, I have to admit, I don’t know precisely where the signal will be going to, or how it’ll be received, but theoretically we have here a mostly accurate reconstruction of the same waves Goobleck was able to tether between worlds.”
Chuck looked at the microphone, then back to Ms Gilbert, “so, um…how do we turn it on?”
Ms Gilbert sighed, a little deflated by how the rest of the group didn’t share her same enthusiasm. Mr Cicle tried to offer some consolation, “I don’t think the rest of us are quite as, um, scientifically minded, but this is still definitely interesting. If this works, I wonder what else we could do!”
“Yes,” Ms Gilbert hopped up, a little of her energy restored, “this could be a major breakthrough, maybe after this we can find some way to get signals back and forth, even to get them to specific worlds and specific places!”
Chuck was still tapping on the mic.
“Alright, I see, I’ve taken enough of all your time, we might as well run the test now,” Ms gilbert rolled her eyes and looked back at the computer.
C stepped closer to Chuck and the mic, “do you have a plan for what you’re gonna say?”
Chuck grinned, “none at all!”
C looked like he was about to respond, but just nodded instead and backed away. Whatever Chuck was about to say, he was just gonna let it happen.
“Okay, let’s hope this works…on three…” Ms Gilbert hovered her fingers over the keyboard and began the countdown.
Robert’s camcorder zoomed on Chuck and the mic, tensely awaiting his words. Ms Gilbert reached three and pressed a button.
“What’s up chucklers, welcome back-”
Chuck was immediately cut off by a bright flash of light, and then the room going pitch black.
“Oh. Oh dear,” Ms Gilbert’s voice muttered in the darkness.
“Did you really have to transmit some kind of youtuber intro across the universe?” he could hear C complaining next.
“Hey, any of you guys could’ve come to the mic and said something instead, just saying,” Chuck retorted.
“You were hogging it ever since Ms Gilbert showed it to us,” Mr Cicle huffed.
Robert rolled his eyes and fiddled with the camcorder until he found the night vision function. He looked around and saw Ms Gilbert was blindly pressing buttons at the computer, trying to get it to turn back on without success, meanwhile Mr Cicle, C and Chad were staying where they were, holding onto the edge of nearby tables to not lose their place in the dark. Where Chuck had last been, though, was now some weird morphing blob of light that vaguely resembled the figure of a person. Robert supposed ghosts showed up a little differently on different camera settings.
He first walked to the light switch, but turning it off and on didn’t change anything. Damn, whatever that microphone had done, it must have blown a fuse or two in the process. He supposed the protective gear was a good precaution now, though.
“You guys just hang where you are, I’ll go find the breaker, or something,” Robert assured them as he went to leave.
“Oh, ok, uh- good luck!” Mr Cicle called back to him.
“What are we meant to do while we’re in here? It’s way too creepy when it’s dark,” there was an audible frown in Chad’s voice.
A ghostly whisper spread across the room as Robert looked back to see the Chuck-shaped blob of light had drifted over Chad’s shoulder, “it’s not the dark itself, but the things hiding in it, that you should be scared of…”
Robert heard a scream just as he shut the door and continued down the outside hall in search of something to reset the power. They’d all be fine in there while he was gone. Probably.
~
PLAY ▶ 🎙️
PM 01:43:17
2143 🔋
Robert was making himself lunch in the kitchen while William sat talking with Chuck at the nearby dining table. It was easier to make food with both his hands, so Robert was using an attachment he’d made on a backpack that he slotted the camcorder into, giving him a constant perspective from his shoulder. He mainly used the attachment when he was at work, since carrying a tray of coffees was also often a two-handed job, and people didn’t think he was slacking off by messing with his camcorder in his hands all the time.
But having somewhere to put the camcorder other than his hands was useful in day to day situations too. The only downside was getting used to a perspective slightly to the side rather than right in front, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
“I think what I said was just so cool that I overloaded the power,” Chuck bragged while giving his very biased retelling of what had happened yesterday with Ms Gilbert’s microphone.
“Mhm,” luckily it didn’t sound like William was falling for it anyway. He’d just been passing through the area, so he decided to come visit them for an hour or so. Most of the house was out right now, with Romeo and Chad at university and everyone else at work, leaving just Robert with his day off and Chuck with his lack of an (actual) job.
“But we got the power back, and Ms G said she might have a better working model in another week or so,” Chuck continued.
“We got the power back?” Robert finally joined the conversation to make a correction.
Chuck did an exaggerated groan, “alright, fine, you got the power back, but you were cheating with that night vision stuff.”
“It’s literally just my eyes, how is using my eyes cheating?” Robert cut and plated the sandwich he’d made, then he could come over to the table William and Chuck were on and talk with them fully.
Chuck looked at the camera lens, then at Robert’s non-functional ‘real’ eyes, “you’ve got weird eyes, that’s why.”
Robert didn’t even have a response to that, so he just rolled his non-functional eyes and started eating.
William tapped his finger on the table a couple times, thinking, “so, Ms G explained the connection between all the worlds working like a wave, right?”
Robert nodded slowly, “I’ll be real, I didn’t fully understand, but yeah.”
“Well, ok,” William leant against the table, “here’s what I’m thinking. It's like there's a wall between every world, and without a Goobleck shaped hole people can't pass through walls, you know?" he paused, glancing at himself and Chuck, "well, except us, b-but this is just a metaphor so ignore the ghost people for now. The point is, we can't go through walls, but signals can."
“So like radio signals,” Robert nodded.
“Or TV signals,” William tilted his head, still looking off into the distance thoughtfully.
Robert paused chewing for a second and thought too, “what, you…you think we could do more than just talk between worlds?”
“Well, it’s just transmitting information, not anything physical. If we can get a radio signal to go between worlds, I don’t see why we couldn’t try to send a video or anything like that.”
Chuck also looked interested now, “so, could I send like, a zip bomb to another world?”
“No we’re not sending viruses or anything,” William put his head in his hands, “I thought I’d finally found another ghost who was on my wavelength, why are you just as chaotic as Vynce and Dakota..?”
Chuck looked at him, “you’re a ghost?”
William very slowly turned to look at him, “yes. That is like. My whole thing.”
Chuck squinted at him, “can a ghost…possess a ghost..?”
William abruptly stood up from the table, “wow, uh, thank you for letting me stay for a bit guys- oh, man would you look at that, an alert on my watch? The city’s in danger? Oh, man, I gotta go, sorry guys, guess I’ll see you around.”
There definitely wasn’t an actual alert William was responding to, but Robert still gave him a smile and waved to him as he dashed out the door. Chuck sighed, “damn, we might’ve just missed out on an important scientific discovery there.”
Robert shook his head, “I don’t think anyone living in this house knows anything about science.”
~
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AM 09:42:15
2143 🔋
“Okay, so. Here’s the pitch.”
Robert started the powerpoint he’d spent the last couple of days making. Most of that time was spent getting Chad to show him how computers worked, since these ones were a bit past his era.
Rainbow coloured text span onto the screen, reading The Ultra Awesome Cross-Dimensional News Show.
He looked back at the rest of the room with a proud smile. Mr Cicle, C, Exterminator and Chuck were sat in front of him in the living room, a bit more confused than anything. Robert had sat them all down in here before any of them needed to go to work without explaining anything, which was probably why.
“Uh, what…does that mean?” C scratched his head.
Robert looked at the powerpoint, then back at the group, “it’s, uh, well I thought it was all in the name, really.”
“Maybe just a little elaboration would be good,” Mr Cicle suggested.
Robert cleared his throat, “right, uh, I thought since there’s a chance we could send, um, signals, and that kind of stuff, to other worlds, I thought we could maybe, uh, do some kind of news show, between all the worlds. So we could like, let all the other guys like Gillion and Bruce and whoever know that we’re alright. And maybe find a way to see how they’re doing, too.”
Mr Cicle tilted his head, thinking for a few seconds, “do we know that that’s…possible?”
Robert tried to not look too worried about that, although knowing his own inability to control his expressions the uncertainty was probably written all over his face, “not yet exactly, but give Ms Gilbert a bit more time and I’m sure she’ll be figuring something out.”
“I was also gonna say,” Exterminator spoke up, “I know Ms G has access to a lot of resources, but I don’t think she has any TV studios up her sleeves.”
“We’ve got money for rent, we don’t have money for that,” C added.
“It- well-” Robert looked at all of them, then towards the floor and mumbled, “if you don’t like the idea you can just tell me, guys…”
“No, no, it’s not that,” Mr Cicle reassured him, hiding a laugh in his voice, “we just need to figure out a way that it’s doable, you know?”
Robert looked off to the side, “okay, I’ll try to figure something out. Then I’ll be back with an even cooler powerpoint!”
There was a pause and Chuck pointed to the rainbow text still on screen, “...is this powerpoint just one slide?”
“Yeah- I said it was all in the name!” Robert defended.
~
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AM 01:24:36
2143 🔋
It was a really weird time of day to be getting a phone call, and Robert wasn’t that happy about answering it either considering he had work the next day. But they wouldn’t stop ringing, so he went downstairs to answer it to save anyone else the trouble.
“Hello?” he said blearily while wiping the camcorder lens on his shirt.
“Oh you ain’t gon believe this, I tell ya, y’all didn’t believe me but guess just what I found, right here under all our noses, I jus’ had to come n tell ya the news!”
Robert slowly opened his mouth, “...what?”
“It’s green gold, I tell ya, Robert! I got what I been huntin’ for and they’re all payin’ premium for this here fine product!”
“What…the fuck..? Wait, you- wait, Big Duck?” finally it registered who he was talking to on the other side of the phone.
“That’s right, and I’m wranglin’ the big bucks again, yessir! I found my fortune, Robert!”
“Wait, actually? Holy shit, that’s…you haven’t just become a scam caller, have you?”
“This ain’t no scam, this is the real deal! I’ll be comin’ to ya soon, jus’ wanted to call ahead o’ time an’ let you know.”
“Uh, okay, um,” Robert really didn’t know how to take in any of this, “so are you, like, super rich now?”
“Oh you best believe it! I’m gonna have so much I don’t know what to do with it!”
Robert got an idea, “well, if you don’t mind me asking…would you be interested in funding a TV show?”
~
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AM 10:14:54
2143 🔋
A week or so later, they’d actually gotten a TV studio. Robert could hardly believe it until he was wandering through the room and stopping by the huge broadcast camera that made his camcorder look pathetic by comparison. Damn, imagine if his vision had been put in that thing instead…
He heard the swivelling of a chair and looked at the desk set up in their filming space, at which Mr Cicle was already sat and spinning around, unable to hide the childish grin on his face. He was dressed similar today to how he’d been when they first met, in some kind of stripy green waistcoat.
The last people using this studio had been doing some kind of podcast, but conveniently the desk and chair they’d been using lent itself well to a news show setup too. If anything it looked too much like a news show, and Robert was getting intimidated by how professional everything in here was.
Well, everything apart from the people. He probably had the least professional group in the world to be doing this with, as evidenced by how Exterminator was swinging a tube light around like a katana.
Ms Gilbert came into the studio dragging a trolley behind her and parked it by the desk. She stepped back and wiped her forehead while Mr Cicle stopped his chair and peered closer at what she’d brought in- it was an assortment of technology none of them besides her really knew how to use, in the mix were some glowing wires like the ones from the microphone, but apparently it was everything they’d need to get their signal sent to another world.
“And that's not gonna blow another fuse?” Mr Cicle checked with her.
She shrugged, which wasn’t encouraging, “it shouldn’t. The audio signal tests have been going well, so the visual one should be fine too!”
Robert looked over, “have you tested sending a visual signal yet..?”
“They’re similar enough, it’ll be fine,” which was Ms Gilbert’s cryptic way of saying ‘no’.
“How have the other tests been going, anyway?” Mr Cicle tried to look for some more positive omens for the broadcast they were just about to do.
“We know the signals have been sent off, where exactly we’re not sure, and we haven’t gotten any sort of response- but, we have sent some messages to other worlds, which is already a great achievement by itself!”
Robert nodded, just trying to reassure himself, “yeah, this is pretty much just the first test anyway, there’s no pressure.”
He turned around and saw Romeo had joined Exterminator in his mock fight using a different piece of probably expensive equipment. No pressure, it was fine, this was fine, everything was fine.
He ended up helping Ms Gilbert set up her equipment as much as he could, and she ended up being the one to tell off Exterminator and Romeo before they broke something. They had it on a table facing the news desk but behind the lights and camera, pretty much where a director’s chair would be expected to go. It was a few minutes into their setup when the late arrivals finally made it.
Chad, Chuck and Big Duck were the last people they were waiting on (C and William weren’t coming, one was busy and the other had made it clear enough he wanted nothing to do with cameras), and they all entered together with a drink each.
“You stopped for coffee before you got here?” Romeo complained, though it sounded like he was jealous.
“Is that a crime?” Chuck retorted.
“Just don’t spill it on anything,” Robert tried to glare at them as best he could to get the point across.
The three made themselves at home in the studio, although they didn’t offer to help with anything to Robert’s annoyance. He just tried to get on with it alongside Ms Gilbert, occasionally looking over and seeing Big Duck leaning on the desk, chatting with Mr Cicle.
“I guess he’s like our boss,” Ms Gilbert raised an eyebrow at Robert, “since he’s paying for all of it.”
Robert gave Big Duck a longer look, “yeah, he…seems happy enough to be helping, which is good, though I’m not sure he’s actually asked what it is we’re even trying to film.”
“Do you know where exactly he’s getting the money from..?” Ms Gilbert spoke quieter, sounding more suspicious.
Robert let out a sigh, “well, aside from ‘green gold’ he hasn’t given me any details, so I honestly have no idea. I haven’t really questioned it much, in case this is like…drug money.”
Ms Gilbert looked concerned for a moment, then shrugged and moved on. They’d both just try to hope that it wasn’t anything like that.
Robert watched as Ms G went through the last steps of setting it up herself, and she smiled and clapped her hands once it was almost ready, “alright, everyone! Get in your positions, it’s time to give this a go!”
Mr Cicle stayed at the desk and Robert went over to the main camera, placing his camcorder by a monitor that showed him what the camera saw. At his work he’d sometimes see the camera people pull out the big rigs like this that needed to be rolled around on wheels underneath instead of being carried by hand. Usually that would make it a two person job, one to relay what was being seen on screen while the other moved and adjusted the camera accordingly, and even if one person was managing to move the camera and check the monitor at the same time, it looked like a struggle.
Robert, however, didn’t need to move in order to check the monitor. He could stay right where he was, and his eyes were always on it. He was practically the camera itself! He had to feel around to check he was in the right place, sure, and he’d have to work on memorising what all the buttons did (or maybe just add braille to them) but he thought this was a pretty convenient way to do it. The wheels gave him a nice freedom of movement, and he honestly felt pretty cool being the camera guy at last after having spent a month of work staring at their backs.
Most of the other positions were just people who’d come to watch and see if it went right or horribly wrong, but Exterminator grabbed a clapperboard and brought it over to the camera. Robert was pretty sure they didn’t need one of those for a live broadcast, but Exterminator was happy to get involved so he didn’t stop him. Chad stood over Ms Gilbert’s shoulder, ready to run off and fix things if (when) they went wrong. She hovered a finger over her keyboard and nodded to Exterminator.
“Alright, attempt number one of the Ultra, uh…something something News Show!” Exterminator clapped the clapperboard after fumbling the name of the show and ran off to the side.
“Okay, so, how do we open the show?” Mr Cicle drummed his fingers on the desk.
“I dunno but we’re rolling, so you’d better figure it out,” Ms Gilbert told him.
“T-that was the signal to broadcast? Oh, shoot, I always do this, um…welcome to the maz- I-I mean, welcome to our news show, the, uh…” he squinted at a sheet of paper on his desk with random notes scrawled over it, “The Ultra Awesome Cross-Dimensional News Show.”
Mr Cicle smiled to the camera, trying his best to play it off like he knew what he was saying. He wasn’t a bad host, he was probably just working with a terrible crew.
Behind himself Robert could hear Ms Gilbert muttering to Chad, “I think it’s actually running, the signal’s going somewhere. There’s a fire extinguisher in this room, right?”
“Yeah, why?” Chad sounded more than a little nervous.
“Oh, just in case, don’t worry,” she assured him. Robert couldn’t see how Chad was responding to that, but he himself was definitely more on edge than he’d just been.
Mr Cicle continued, “here on Prime the weather is fair and the traffic is terrible as always, but that’s probably one thing all our worlds have in common! Now, if you’re receiving this broadcast, you yourself might not know where Prime is, but not to worry, you haven’t woken up in another universe like we did last month, this broadcast is actually coming from another world! So wherever you are, good morning, good night, or whatever other measurement of time you may have.
“We’d love to hear what it’s like in all your worlds right now, but I’m afraid for now our signal only goes one way. But we’ll be working on a solution to that soon, so make sure that however you’re hearing or seeing this now, you tune in next time! I would go on, but I’m getting some worrying hand signals from our director, so I’m afraid we might have to sto-”
Robert jumped as it sounded like a bulb had burst behind him and his vision went black. He fumbled for the camcorder and brought it away from the monitor, thankfully finding that it wasn’t the whole room that was black, just the camera’s screen.
“Another fuse?” Mr Cicle sighed and stood up from the desk.
Ms Gilbert shook her head, “the lights are still on, so it might be something else. Maybe the demands of being sent to another world just overloaded the camera…”
“Good attempt,” Exterminator tried to get the morale back up, “even if it got cut short we managed to say most of the important stuff, and the signal went through, right?”
Ms Gilbert was already underneath her computer pulling out some frazzled wires- probably related to whatever Robert had just heard breaking- “yes, I think so! As you said, we’ll have no idea how to get a response or know how successful it really was, but that’s the most we can do for now.”
“Another week of troubleshooting?” Mr Cicle asked.
“Yes, afraid so,” Ms Gilbert nodded, “but that just means in another week we’ll have a much more successful attempt two!”
Robert went over to Mr Cicle as everyone else began packing stuff up, having nothing left to do in here for another week, “well, I think you made a pretty good host.”
Mr Cicle smiled and adjusted his bowtie, “I try my best.”
~
PLAY ▶ 🎙️
PM 10:39:58
2143 🔋
Later that night, after their short broadcast, Robert spent the evening laid on his back in the garden. No particular reason, he was just feeling somewhat reminiscent that night, and even if the stars barely displayed on his camcorder it was nice to know they were there anyway.
Maybe it was something to do with the broadcast, that it had him feeling…not necessarily alone, but disconnected. There was no way for any of them to know if any of this effort was actually doing anything. They could hope their friends received the signal somehow, and maybe it would be nice for them to see that Robert and the rest of the gang in this world were doing alright, but how was everyone else doing? Xiv, Slime, Troy, all of them- he just hoped they were doing okay too.
The back door opened and Robert glanced over, surprised to see C stepping out to join him.
He didn’t say anything, and neither did Robert, unsure why he was coming out here in the first place. C tended to avoid him most of the time, on account of the whole camcorder thing. Robert could understand it, he wasn’t gonna force C to hang out with him, but he did constantly wish there was something he could do to fix the problem. But his camcorder wasn’t going away anytime soon, and he doubted C’s paranoia would either.
“Still haven’t figured out a better name for myself,” C said, not looking at Robert as he sat down beside him.
Robert looked at him from the corner of the lens, “neither has Exterminator. I don’t understand how the guys he works with can call him that seriously.”
“Well we all know Exterminator’s not changing it,” C sighed, but it sounded like he was smiling, “he keeps insisting how cool he sounds, and even though he probably could just go back to Charlie now that the ‘original’ Charlie is gone I don’t think he ever will.”
“Did you go by Charlie before you went by C?” Robert hesitantly asked. He knew Ranboo had mentioned something about C choosing to change his name all that time ago when they were explaining how that other group had all found each other and avoided being killed on the way to Charlie's eldritch bug-infested house.
C took a while to respond, which gave Robert time to start regretting his question, but eventually he said, “yeah, I was worried about it not being my real name, but I guess there never really was a ‘real name’ now. I’d still rather go by something other than Charlie though. However real or fake Showfall ever was, I don’t wanna go by a name that they might’ve forced on me.”
Robert nodded, giving a few seconds before he said anything else, “have you had any other name ideas since then?”
“Uh, occasionally, but most of them I lose interest in after a little while. Feels like there’s so much pressure on picking the ‘right’ name.”
“Yeah, I get it. Well, I don’t, but I still see what you mean.”
C sighed, “at this point, I’ll probably just stick with C. I thought it was annoying to have the thing I made up on the spot stuck with me the rest of my life, but it’s also kinda funny.”
Robert gave a quiet chuckle and wasn’t sure what to say after that. He just stayed staring up at the sky, hoping C didn’t mind the silence.
“Just so you know,” C spoke again after a while, “I’m sorry that I kind of…glare at you all the time. I’m trying to get better with cameras, it’s just…subconscious.”
“It’s fine,” Robert shook his head, “I’m not gonna blame you.”
“Um, how did it go today? The whole broadcast thing?” C sounded a little awkward as he changed the subject.
“Good- well, kind of good. We did it, but then something exploded,” Robert laughed.
“Shit, really?”
“Nothing, like, massive, but yeah. We’ll be back there next week to give it another go.”
“...Hope it goes well,” C said after a moment of thinking. Robert couldn’t be sure what it was he was thinking about, but he still smiled.
“Thanks. Me too.”
~
PLAY ▶ 🎙️
AM 09:50:21
2143 🔋
Another week went by, then another, and another. It became a routine as they gathered on the one day a week most of them had off work in the TV studio for another broadcast. The signal managed to last longer each time, to the point where Mr Cicle was running out of things to say and last week he'd improvised by playing rock paper scissors to the camera, hoping if someone was watching they’d be joining in from the other side.
This week Ms Gilbert was later than usual to arrive with the trolley full of wires and technology that got their show working. They didn’t have a schedule they needed to stick to, but Robert couldn't help glancing to the clock at the corner of his vision every few minutes to see how long it was taking.
When she finally did arrive she was out of breath, but with a wide smile on her face.
“That looks like good news?” Mr Cicle hazarded a guess based on her expression.
She nodded, “oh yes! Just needed a few extra minutes to check it would be up and running, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“It? What’s it?” Chuck drifted over to the trolley.
“You’ll see, you’ll see,” she giddily got to work on connecting everything up, Robert and Exterminator jumping in to assist.
It seemed to just be the normal weekly setup, until Ms Gilbert went to grab one last thing, and ended up revealing a telephone. It was a big red clunky one, definitely from far before this era.
“Oh my god, where’d you find one of those?” Robert ran over to it, taking in the sight. For everyone else it probably looked like old junk, but this was actually something from his era that he knew how to use! Maybe this made everyone always calling him an ‘old man’ back at the house worth it.
“I needed something that could support the kind of signals we’re sending, and all these modern wireless phones wouldn’t do, so I dug around in the antiques store until I found this! I’ll just set it up over here,” she brought the phone to the desk and put it next to Mr Cicle.
He looked at it curiously, “am I going to be using that?”
Ms Gilbert put her hands on her hips, “I’d like to say yes, but we’ll just have to see. As with everything, no doubt it’ll go wrong somehow. I’ll signal when it’s time to give it a go.”
“Will I need to do anything?” Mr Cicle asked as she was already returning to the computer.
“You’ll see!” she answered cryptically and started typing things in.
Mr Cicle looked to Robert, a little worried, so Robert gave him an encouraging smile. Although given the concerned look he got in return, his smile might’ve looked more like a grimace than anything.
Despite the new addition to the news desk, they got the show going like they did every week. The broadcast began and a few minutes in Ms Gilbert raised her hand.
“Is that…the signal?” Mr Cicle asked, having just finished his segment talking about the superheroes that had been on the news that week.
“Um, it…should be. Hold on,” it sounded like Ms Gilbert was having trouble with something on the computer.
“Alright, uh, technical difficulties, everyone!” Mr Cicle looked back at the camera, “but don’t touch that dial, or whatever else you might have, because next up-”
Mr Cicle was cut off as the phone on the desk started ringing.
He looked at it, then past the camera at Ms Gilbert, “uh…do I..?”
He was quiet a moment as he looked at Ms G’s response, then returned to his usual energy, “alright, um, I’m getting an encouraging nod from our director at the computer! Let’s see what this is, then.”
He picked up the phone and hesitantly brought it to his ear, “hello..?”
“Hello?”
There was a voice on the other end, although it was harder to hear from across the room. Mr Cicle’s eyes widened.
“Oh, um, hello! Might I ask who this is?”
“I’ve had your voice coming from my sending stone for weeks and that’s how you greet me? You have one chance to guess who this is, Mr Cicle, or I’m finding a way to block you.”
Another even quieter voice came from the other end of the phone, “I don’t believe you can ‘block’ people on a sending stone…”
“Shut up Klip, let me threaten my friends!” the first voice spat back.
Mr Cicle’s mouth hung open a few moments, “is that…Xiv?”
“Oh, damn it, you actually got it, um…”
Robert’s muscles tensed and he almost accidentally turned the camera off as his fingers skidded by the wrong button. Holy shit, he recognised it now, that must have been Xiv’s voice!
“Lucky guess. But, um, anyways, how are you all doing? I didn’t think we’d ever be talking again.”
“I’ll be honest, neither did I,” Mr Cicle laughed, “s-so you’ve- have you actually been hearing these broadcasts each week? They…actually made it to you?”
“Yeah, one day the sending stone activated, and I just started hearing your voice. Then there was an explosion and I assumed you were dead for about a week, but then you were back again! Nice of you to finally let me talk back to you this time.”
“Yes, I don’t really know…how…” Mr Cicle trailed off, looking to where Ms Gilbert was, “this is a very nice surprise, though.”
“Hold on!” Exterminator ran up to the desk and made a grabbing motion for the phone, “I wanna talk, hand it over.”
Mr Cicle obliged and Exterminator stretched the cord as he brought the phone up to his ear, “hey, it’s been ages, how have you been?”
“Uh, I suppose I’m doing fine, still adventuring with these losers,” there was a quiet shout of protest from Xiv’s side of the call, “but would you mind me asking how exactly you got my number, so to say?”
“Hold on,” now Ms Gilbert was jogging over to the desk and took the phone from Exterminator, “well it’s quite a long process, but we didn’t really get your number, so to say, we’ve actually got everyone’s number all at once! I figured out just this week how I could possibly get the signal to go both ways, and it looks like out of everyone receiving this you’re the first to get a connection back!”
“Sick.”
“Uh…yeah!” at this point Ms Gilbert just took what she could get when it came to everyone else’s scientific enthusiasm.
Exterminator took the phone back, “how would you rate Mr Cicle’s hosting on a scale of one to ten?”
Mr Cicle frowned, “I’ve lost control of my own show.”
“Uhhh, needs more explosions. Stop talking about the weather and stuff. Nine out of ten though.”
“W-well what else are you meant to talk about on a news show?” Mr Cicle defended himself, “I thought you’d be happy to know what’s going on in different universes.”
“Yes, I am, but only the cool bits. Get some guests or something- oh, you should get that Pencilman guy on, you keep mentioning him when you talk about all the superheroes.”
“He’s probably…busy,” Ms Gilbert sounded like she was lying as she took the phone back, “but while you’re on, did you want to say anything else to broadcast out to however many listeners it is that we have?”
“Oh, uh…” Xiv took a moment to think, “hey, if Gillion’s hearing this right now, you s-”
Loud static interference interrupted the call, and then it shut off entirely.
“Oh, damn it!” Ms Gilbert cursed and ran back to the computer. Exterminator stayed at the desk as Mr Cicle recomposed himself and turned to the camera.
“Uh, we’re sorry to cut you off there Xiv, but tune in next week and we might-”
“Screw that, I’m not waiting another week to talk to them!” Exterminator interrupted, “hey, you guys are all free in the evenings, right? We’ll make it a late night talk show and then we can do it multiple nights of the week!”
Mr Cicle shrugged, “well, we could, but we probably need to wait to fix the problem with the phone first.”
Exterminator groaned and put his face down on the desk. Mr Cicle awkwardly patted his head, then looked back at the camera.
“Well, uh, I suppose we’ll likely be ending our broadcast there today. See you…whenever we’re live again.”
After a few moments Robert cut the camera and took his camcorder again, pointing it to Ms Gilbert, “do you know how long it’ll take to get that fixed?”
Ms G hummed, tapping her fingers against the keyboard for a few seconds, “give me three days. I’ll get the connection stronger by then.”
“You sure that’s enough time?” Chad asked.
She nodded decisively, “the show must go on.”
~
PLAY ▶ 🎙️
PM 08:56:43
2143 🔋
Three days passed, and they were back in the studio again.
The atmosphere seemed a bit more tense this time as most people had their eyes on the phone, waiting silently on the desk. The broadcast hadn’t started yet, but the possibility to hear from the other universes again had everyone on the edge of their seats.
They got the show going, Mr Cicle did an introduction like always, but they didn’t even bother with any other segments before Ms Gilbert activated whatever it was that would connect their phone between worlds.
They waited in silence a few moments.
Ring, ri-
Mr Cicle immediately snatched up the phone, “hello?”
“Oh, holy shit, this is so cool. Uh, hi- how did you guys even manage this? This isn’t gonna throw the universe out of balance and explode everything, right?”
“Uh,” Mr Cicle looked a bit flustered by all the questions, “well, uh, no, the only thing exploding is the fuses every time we’ve tried this. Could I ask who it is I’m speaking with?”
“Oh yeah, sorry, it’s Charlie. The one whose world you all, uh, ended up in a month or two ago. Seriously, I didn’t know this was even an option, like I’m watching you on my TV and my phone just started ringing, and now I’m- talking to you? From another world?”
“You can see us too?” Mr Cicle waved to the camera.
“Yeah, I can see you waving and everything.”
Mr Cicle did rock paper scissors to the camera.
“Paper, I win.”
“Darn,” Mr Cicle scowled and took back his rock, “wait, I can’t see you, you could have definitely cheated that.”
“Nuh uh, Ranboo can verify,” Charlie insisted and presumably passed the phone to someone else.
“Yeah, he won, sorry Mr Cicle,” Ranboo said.
Mr Cicle smacked his lips, “well, that’s besides the point. Have you been seeing our show all the other times we’ve done it?”
“Uh, yeah,” Charlie must’ve taken the phone back as he was speaking again, “I didn’t even find it, the TV kinda just turned itself on once a week on a channel that didn’t exist and I saw you guys. I tried getting other people to see if they could find it but looks like it’s only whichever TV I’m closest to that actually brings up your show.”
“Well, that’s a relief that it hasn’t been broadcasting to a bunch of random people,” Ms Gilbert observed, then went on to mutter something about magnetism and shared energy as she scribbled down some notes.
The phone rang again and Mr Cicle looked confused, “oh, seems like we’re getting…another call? Sorry Charlie, you might have to hold for a second,” he said as he accepted the new call.
“YOU’RE LETTING HIM STEAL MY FUCKING AIRTIME!?”
Mr Cicle pushed the phone away from his ear as yelling burst from the other end, “i-is that Xiv?”
“Yes, it is I, and you’re letting Charlie talk instead of me?” they sounded disgusted at the idea.
“Well, I’m not exactly sure if there’s a way to control which calls-” Mr Cicle began trying to defend himself.
“Alright whatever, I just wanted to finish what I was saying last time before you very rudely cut me off.”
“I didn’t-”
Xiv interrupted Mr Cicle again, “hey, Gillion, if you’re hearing this, you SUCK. And also find a way to call me like these guys are doing because I want to know how you’re doing, you big dumb fish.”
Mr Cicle smiled, “whilst there might not be a way for you two to call directly, maybe we can act as some kind of service that passes your messages across to each other.”
“Um, yeah, that sounds fine. As long as I get to hear Gillion instead of that loser you had on before me.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Mr Cicle didn’t quite make it a promise, because he wasn’t entirely sure he could fulfil it. Before the conversation could continue, though, the phone rang again.
“Oh, talk to you in a moment Xiv, it sounds like there’s someone else we’ve connected to,” he picked up the new call.
“Hello, little people inside my shell! Haha, I’m joking, I know you’re not actually in the shell.”
“Uh, Gillion, right?” Mr Cicle could recognise that voice, “this is perfect timing, actually, Xiv had just mentioned you!”
“Yes, and I had a message for them too! Xiv…YOU are the one who sucks. But also, I have told many sailors of your legend, which you can brag about to Klip now! They have taken to calling you the purple devil, which I’m not sure how I feel about, and you also now are known for shooting fireballs at children who do not behave, which I am also unsure about, but you have become a legend at least!”
The phone started ringing again, “feels like I’m in some kind of call center- uh, well thank you Gillion, it’s time to pass the line to another caller again,” Mr Cicle once again picked up for a new call.
“Yess, who is thiss?” a new voice that none of them recognised came from the other side.
“Mr Cicle, you are?”
“Thiss is Paeon, but I don’t think I recognise you, are you one of my patientss? Are you contacting me because you need me to cure any STDss?”
“What? Uh, no, this might actually be a wrong call, um...sorry about that.”
Mr Cicle put down the phone and stared into the camera for a moment without saying anything.
“Well. Um,” he cleared his throat, “I guess, uh, keep your calls coming, folks. I’ll…try my best, to keep up.”
“I think I hear another one on the way, you don’t want to do one last call?” Ms Gilbert teased.
“After that last one I think I’m done for the night. I’ll get Chuck to host next time, then we can at least run it like a podcast,” Mr Cicle suggested.
“Score!” Chuck shouted from the back of the room.
The phone started ringing again and Mr Cicle quickly waved to the camera, “uh, yeah, bye, see you next time!”
As soon as Robert stopped rolling he took a sigh of relief, although the phone was still ringing.
“We can take this one off air,” Exterminator said with a wink as he came over to pick it up, seeing Mr Cicle was too frazzled by the previous onslaught of calls to pick it up again, “yello?”
“Hey, brah. Long time no-”
Exterminator hung up the phone.