Chapter Text
Pluey quietly trilled to himself as he snuck through the dark hall. He’d never been around the studio alone so late at night! He was always either working the evening shift as Mike, or getting his required 12 hours minimum of beauty sleep, but tonight felt different, so he’d foregone both routines.
Tonight felt special.
Distantly, he heard the muffled voices of all the TV world employees hard at work managing the late night special. He was supposed to be there, helping out the other Mikes, but he had other, more fun things to do.
As he prowled past the doors labelled with the first three letters in the alphabet, Pluey decided to investigate behind the counter which was normally guarded by a very stern Zapper. He’d always wondered what sorts of cool gizmos and gadgets were being hidden from him!
Maybe this was where Jongler kept all their churu… Pluey’s tail quivered at the thought.
On all fours, the counter was far too tall for Pluey. After a moment of contemplation, he crouched down, lowering his belly fur as close to the ground as he could, then leapt up. His front paws grabbed the counter and he flailed around until he managed to pull himself up. He rolled over and landed on his back behind the counter with a honk.
Instead of the churu he desired, Pluey found himself staring at a miscellany of buttons in all different sizes and colours. Although slightly disappointing, it was still a neat find! Pluey loved pressing buttons!
Mesmerized, his eyes widened.
Pluey began to mash all the buttons with his paws, fluttertounging with a giddy delight. To his amazement, they all made different little sounds! A small part of him worried that he was messing something up, but he reasoned to himself that it wasn’t his fault the buttons were so fun!
After only a few seconds of blissful pummeling, a loud thunk interrupted Pluey’s perfect moment. Had he been caught!? Pluey lifted his head above the counter, praying that it would only be one of the Mikes or a Pippins who didn’t care that he was snooping around when he should be working.
To his surprise, nobody met his gaze– he hadn’t been caught at all! Pluey glanced around to try and locate the source of the sound, but all he saw was hallway on either side…
Wait, there wasn’t a hallway to his left earlier…! Pluey’s ears perked as he realized he must’ve just uncovered a secret passage! He leapt back over the counter, hastily abandoning the buttons he had just been so entranced with to instead follow this new adventure.
Prancing down the new path, Pluey flicked his tail excitedly. Maybe this was where Jongler kept their hidden churu stash! Oh, what a delight that would be!
Damp wallpaper drooped off the walls, emitting a stench that made Pluey’s nose scrunch. Bugs scurried across the floor, which was covered in a thin layer of dust that Pluey left his footprints in. It quickly became clear that nobody had been here in a long, long time.
His pace began to slow as he reached the end of the rotting hallway. Pluey found himself met with a door he almost didn’t want to open– an old, hardly visible slash of red paint read ‘Z’.
Z? He’d only seen rooms A, B, and C earlier. Had Pluey somehow walked past rooms ranked D through Y without noticing? No, surely he would’ve noticed.
Pluey reached out a paw and hesitantly twisted the doorknob.
Pushing the door open, Pluey flopped back down onto his paws and padded into the room. Before he could process anything else, he was hit with the smell of mold and a damp rot, followed by the sight of shattered glass all over the floors, refracting what little light remained. A poster depicting a younger Tenna and somebody he didn’t recognize hung from the wall, practically torn to shreds. In the darkness, the image seemed to warp and distort through Pluey’s limited vision.
The centerpiece of the room was a small round table with an old dial telephone resting atop it. The sight unsettled Pluey to his core for a reason he didn’t understand.
Where was he? This wasn’t a churu stash.
Opting to stand on his two feet to avoid getting glass in his precious soft paws, Pluey stepped towards the phone. He hated how un-catlike it made him feel. Cats didn’t get up onto their back paws… His tail rested firmly between his shaky legs as he picked up the phone and held it to his ear. He’d never really seen this type of phone– he wondered who he should call! He knew Battat’s number…
To his surprise, somebody seemed to already be on the other line. A voice spoke unintelligible words, then gasped as if realizing somebody had picked up the phone. How long had they been waiting for?
“Follow the big city lights.” The caller whispered, breathy and almost panicked. Pluey began to squeak a confused reply when a click indicated that they’d hung up.
Garbage noise, a staticky, warbled cacophony of tones, blasted through the phone and into Pluey’s sensitive kitty ears. A noise worse than nails on a chalkboard, a noise whose only appropriate response was a scream as it enveloped all of Pluey’s being.
As he dropped the phone, his senses didn’t return. He’d never noticed how loud silence was, how much of an eyesore darkness was. His body disappeared, the taste of leftover kibble in his mouth turned to the cold taste of nothing, not even his own tongue. His mind became a soft fuzz of thoughts that couldn’t pass through the thick air he couldn’t breathe.
Then, he saw himself.
Spilling out the phone, pink and yellow eyes stared back at him. A large, toothy smile emerged from the nothingness, pressing at the bottoms of its eyelids. Did Pluey also have teeth? He couldn’t recall. He tried to put his hand in his mouth to check, but he felt nothing. He wasn’t even sure if he’d moved.
DON’T BE SCARED! A voice, shrill and raucous, split through his mind with an ease his regular thoughts couldn’t. It wriggled into his brain. It held the same qualities as the noise the phone had produced. I’M YOUR FRIEND! I JUST NEED A FAVOR FROM YOU. FRIENDS DO FAVORS, RIGHT?
A wail choked in Pluey’s throat. All he knew was terror. And his friend.
YES? IS THAT A YES? PERFECT! IT’S NOT A BIG FAVOR, YOUR FRIEND PROMISES. ALL I NEED IS FOR LITTLE OLD PLUEY TO FOLLOW THE BIG CITY LIGHTS. Its final five words were a storm, a twisted agony that yanked and pulled at Pluey’s SOUL, if he were to have one.
Claws sunk into his chin, through his costume and into his shadowy flesh. Did he still even have the costume on? He felt naked. Was he naked? Fear pulsed through its claws and into his veins, pulsating beneath his exterior. A great discomfort rose within him.
Its words about the BIG CITY LIGHTS were like bullets, blitzing Pluey’s brain, lodging themselves into his neurons. He tried to gasp to an unknown degree of success.
The darkness, the eyes, the smile, all of Pluey’s biggest fears were then suddenly sucked back into the phone, leaving Pluey behind out of some sort of mercy.
He was in the Z rank room, curled up into himself, phone hanging off its wire, dangling in front of him. Taunting him. A wail spilled out of him.
Follow the big city lights.
How could he ever find a light again when he was engulfed in such darkness? He cried into his torso until he had no more air left to cry. Too exhausted to move, he gave up, resigning his fate as a body on the floor until the end of time.
Time dragged on endlessly. It was its own song, mournful and infinite. If Pluey had the energy, he would find it a beautiful expression, one he would harmonize with in his language.
Finally, his salvation arrived. Someone scooped him up into their arms, gently stroked his head until his eyelids grew too heavy to keep open. They said nothing as they began to move away from the pit from Pluey’s stomach which he left on the floor beneath the phone.
He was quite happy to leave it behind.
Pluey nuzzled into the cold body. It couldn’t have been Battat- he was much too small. Jongler was the right size, but their body was warm. Not as warm as Pluey’s, but still warm. The stranger that brought Pluey to safety was freezing, yet still a welcome comfort after whatever had just happened.
When he woke up, Pluey was back in the Mike room, curled up in his cat bed. His throat hurt when he swallowed, but he was safe. The fluff of the anti-anxiety bed soothed his screaming skin. At some point, he’d lost his Mike costume.
Pink and yellow eyes and a toothy smile looked down at him.
DON’T WORRY, LITTLE PLUEY, I BROUGHT YOU TO SAFETY. ALWAYS AT YOUR SERVICE! It caressed his cheek with a frigid claw. Its ears stood upright, a strange, twisted version of his Mike costume. Had the costume come to life?
Pluey tried to scream and flail, but he couldn’t move.
SAY, I’VE DONE YOU A FAVOR AS YOUR FRIEND. WHY DON’T YOU DO THE SAME FOR ME? It looked up as if in deep thought, then back at Pluey. OH! I KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO! YOU CAN FOLLOW–
“Pluey! Pluey, stop!” Jongler’s voice snapped Pluey back into reality with a heaving gasp. When he processed the Zapper’s hands on his shoulders, Pluey cried out a relieved screech, throwing himself into Jongler’s arms.
Shoulders slumping, Jongler rubbed deep circles on Pluey’s back. “Uh… Hey, it’s okay. What happened? Yous was screaming.”
Pluey tried to explain through harsh wails what he’d seen. He nuzzled as deep into Jongler’s shoulder as he possibly could, grateful for his lack of costume so he could feel the contact on his skin.
Jongler comforted him until he fell back into a warm, dreamless slumber.