Was watching alto’s victim voiceover for fun, til i found that pink worked, or at least was in the 4 year celebration party of rocket co. the first word in her animation was “running” clearly, which doesn’t give us a lot of info, but maybe she was an athlete back then?
Some ridiculous idea I came up with when I was talking to Purrito.
Pings!
It appears that the page "Rocket Co." began its history as a redirect to "Rocket Corp."
However, now the "Rocket Co." page seems to be a duplicate, with its status as a redirect having been revoked. For not being a redirect, its edits will remain out-of-date or even entirely different from "Rocket Corp."
Should the "Rocket Co." page be compared to the original "Rocket Corp." and be reverted to a redirect, with any major edits from the duplicate transferred?
Because I know "Rocket Co." has had a back-and-forth status of being a redirect, yet, even after reading both pages' changelogs, I'm unsure of the reason for this series of edits.
Thank you! :-)
---
Link to the duplicate page "Rocket Co.":
Link to the original page "Rocket Corp.":
23 Votes in Poll
The Second Coming: Remember that new app we just made? I think it's about time we started using it!
The Chosen One: I like the way you think.
Five Minutes Later...H4CK3R: Okay, I rigged your receiver to take calls from an alternate universe. You should be able to receive calls from ANYWHERE now.
The Chosen One: [sigh] This is going to be one long workday...
You have one new message.
Caller: HELP! THERE'S A VIRABOT IN MY HOUSE
The Chosen One: We'll be right there.
A split second later, The Second Coming was back...with two halves of the ViraBot in his hands.
The Chosen One: Ahhh...sile-
NEW REQUEST - alexcrafter28: THERE ARE ROBBERS IN MY HOUSE
H4CK3R: Leave this one to me.
He flew to ALEXCRAFTER28SPC and summoned a thunderstorm in real life, frying the robbers.
alexcrafter28: Wow, thank you! You're definitely getting 5 stars on the app today!
H4CK3R gave him a quick salute to acknowledge him before falling back into the portal.
Meanwhile...The Chosen One: Okay, what's our next problem?
You have 10 new requests.
The Second Coming:...I hate my life.
My power went out!
Lightning just struck my dog!!! HELP
I was testing out that new Splash Potion of Awakening on my fridge - now it's throwing icicles at me!!!
My antivirus program thinks I'm a virus and is trying to lock me in a chest!!!
I bought one of Rocket Corp's gravitational nullifiers, but I dropped it. Now it's being used, on and off, on ME!!! HELP
I just filled my house with Rocket Corp. TVs and watched the same movie on all of them, because why not? Now, my actual house is lagging!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGIANTCHASMJUSTOPENEDUPBENEATHMYFEET
Some prankster attached rocket engines to my house and launched it away! I don't know where either of them is!
My computer got a Blue Screen of Death, but it's the wrong operating system.
THE DARK LORD IS ON THE LOOSE!!! HE CORRODED MY FAMILY!!! HELP ME!!!!
The Second Coming: I need a vacation.
Problem 1The Second Coming repaired the wire and used electrokinesis to restart the house's appliances.
Problem 2The Second Coming healed the dog while The Chosen One slowly dissipated the storm.
The Second Coming: Next time, no bringing yourself OR your dog outside whenever there's a storm! Got it?
Problem 3The Chosen One countered the living fridge's icicles with his fireballs while The Second Coming generated a chainsaw and sliced it in half.
Caller: HEY! THAT'S MY FRIDGE!!!
The Second Coming: First, you want me to save your life, now you're telling me how to save your life?
The Chosen One: I will never get some people.
Problem 4The Chosen One took one look at the Avast! Antivirus system shooting lightning at the stick and immediately flew away.
The Second Coming sighed in exasperation before releasing a targeted EMP in the house that only deactivated the antivirus.
Caller: OH MY GOD THANK YOU!!! YOU SAVED MY LIFE!!!
The Second Coming: Next time, use McAfee.
Problem 5H4CK3R dealt with this one, tweaking the device to return to its original state.
H4CK3R: I'm sorry you had to experience this situation. Here's your money back.
Caller: Thanks! I'm definitely giving your app five stars!
H4CK3R: It's not MY app.
Problem 6H4CK3R realized that the house wasn't lagging because of the TVs, but because one of his mercenaries had accidentally shot a glitch-bomb at it.
H4CK3R: [sigh] Agent? Could you come take a look at this?
Problem 7The Second Coming was just barely able to pull the caller out of the chasm before The Chosen One (underground) brutally punched the rift back into place.
He jumped out, dusting his hands off.
The Chosen One: Phew! Done.
The Second Coming: You do know you just caused another hole in the pavement by jumping out, right?
The Chosen One: ...
Problem 8H4CK3R located the house and returned it, while The Chosen One found the prankster and brought him to the caller to apologize.
Prankster: Sorry.
Caller: I hate you.
The Chosen One had to stare at the caller for another five hours awkwardly as he kept bowing down to them both, praising them way too much.
Problem 9H4CK3R: Uh...how is this a problem? It's not like your blue screen of death type matters...
Caller: It matters to me.
H4CK3R was confused by this but decided to fix up the computer to its correct BSoD anyway.
Caller: OH MY GOD THANK YOU I AM NOT WORTHY
H4CK3R: Don't you dare start it-
Of course, the caller started bowing to H4CK3R like the last one had.
H4CK3R: ...why did I agree to make this app?
Problem 10The Second Coming: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!!?!?!?! YOU JUST LIED TO ME BECAUSE YOU WANTED MY AUTOGRAPH?!?!?!!
Caller: But...uh...uh...
The Second Coming: All you had to do was actually ask for my autograph - but no, you had to make up a fabricated story about The Dark Lord on the loose! I'm going to make this quick - you are hereby permanently and irrevocably banned from using my app or giving it a rating.
The caller walked away shamefully.
Back at HQH4CK3R: Do you think you should have limited the app's range to ACTUAL emergencies, not a tech support app? Considering how the callers are...
The Chosen One: I need a vacation.
The Second Coming: ...you're not the only one.
[END]
Alright uh you seemed to like chapter 2
I guess
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this is an AU.
Here's chapter 3. Let's say Prismatic meets a group of stick figures that might or might not be friendly.
Oh wow. This post got overshadowed by a couple other posts. Imma just*poof* @BigPerritoFan alright bye
---
The hum of the white noise. The blinding light shining through the protections of my eyelids, and the pain surging through my body mercilessly. All of it was coming back to me in a flash, then it was calmer as I shifted through what seemed like a hard bed. My groan alerted some sticks, and they rushed over to me. They stared at me for a bit, worried murmurs and glances, some shuffling or two and maybe some contact with me. Eventually, I managed to sit up, and I noticed some bandages wrapped around my arms, one on my left leg, and my torso. I could also hear their dialogue more clearly.
"Surprised she woke up from the crash." A voice stated in some nonchalance.
"She injured her head, torso, broke two arms and one leg...some metal caused the injury to ricochet through her neck..." Another voice talked in a clam manner.
The environment was interesting. I was in a regular hospital like place, but it seemed a bit unreal due to the diversity of the technology. Through the window, I could infer that the next room was a big dome with protective glass around it, storing some crops and trees. There seemed to be a blue hue shining on the glass too. A voice broke through my observations.
"Hey, how are you feeling?"
I looked directly in front of me, A creamy brown colored stick figure wearing a white poofy scarf, with googles on their head. They seemed to be waiting with a relieving patience, a great contrast to the chaotic movement of the stick figures around me.
"Yeah I'm doing a bit better. My body still hurts a lot."
"Good. My name is Almond, and I would like to ask some questions to determine your current state." The nice but stern stick figure took out a clipboard and clicked their pen.
"First question. What's your name?"
"I'm Prismatic." I said calmly.
A couple of scribbles later and they hummed a weird tune before their eyes peaked over to me again. "Do you remember what happened before you crashed?"
I thought for a moment in my head, Why did I exactly crash? Everything was so...messy. It was pretty hard to recall. Was it one of those weird white tubes that sucked me in too hard? I had to reply something. "I'm not sure, sorry." A tapping with their pen and they began to scribble some more in the clipboard.
I had many questions of my own. What is this place? Where am I? What would they do to me? The sigh of Almond possibly being exhausted escaped from their chest. I guess I said my thoughts out loud without realizing it. They began to recompose themselves, answered: "You're in the Outliers' Base, and one of the many that we have scattered through the Internet. And our plans for you, we're either planning to recruit you, or expell you."
"Expell?!" I exclaimed, a bit too loud. It made me feel a bit embarrassed. The stares of the onlookers didn't help out with my immediate regret.
"Well, we're not going to expell you to space, we're just going to send you back to the Outernet via space craft. Unless.."
"Unless what?"
"Unless we see you useful for our investigations on the Internet. You see, we were sent out here by Rocket Corporations to research on the Internet of its properties, space and maybe its history."
They called themselves the Outliers. I'm not sure why I haven't heard of them before, but I'm not surprised that Rocket Corp had a space project.
Suddenly, they asked another question. "How did you get here?"
I stated that I randomly was teleported to a place of burning buildings, saw two stick figures burning it with strange powers, escaped to a place called Facebook and rode on a spaceship and ended up here.
Almond seemed intrigued about when I said that I was randomly teleported to a place with burning buildings. They squinted their eyes at me.
"Did you see...green particles?"
"Yeah...why?"
They muttered something about green like particles, taking more notes, and glanced at me. They dismissed me of answering questions and headed out of the room. I could see other patients with me, other stick figures. They weren't as beaten up as me. It's been a rough silence since that interview with Almond. The scurry of more stick figures seemed absent. The hum of lights and the AC were more deafening than annoying. I was left alone with my thoughts, in a strange place full of strangers. Then, I heard a familiar voice, trickling down my cheek like tears, and with tears my face made, down my eyes to my chin.
"Pris? Is that you?"
---
I think we got some proof now.
The logo (rocket) is inspired by victim’s rocket and drawn by Misti, as we all know. This logo changed a bit over time. Here’s what I noticed.
The current logo on rocket corp’s high tech devices (memory readers, vehicles, guns) have a more aesthetic proportion and a smaller top.
This design is the same as in yellow’s wanted poster.
Meanwhile, the first logo drawn by Mitsi and the logo on the old rocket corp building both have a wider bottom. I’m not sure but the logo on the current building might also have the wider bottom.
The same design is on TCO’s wanted posters.
Soooo I think that the wanted posters of TCO is printed long long ago when the logo is still the older style. Victim must have been planning for so long.
(I like digging up details :)
Parody of 7 Years by Lukas Graham
Lyrics by The Slimy Stump and Ming222 (aka @Imnicepls-1 )
Once I knew nothing but pain, you came and showed me
That life it can be safe, it can be happy
Once we were new to this place
I'd only just escaped, and I'd known naught but torture
Running away from every shape and thinking it's a cursor
For the first time I laid eyes on such a kindly figure
Have I left that man behind and found a place that's safer?
Once we'd just arrived at this place, you came and showed me
That people can be kind, they can be friendly
Once into this village we came
It was a brand new life, I had to give back the favor
So we started drawing parts, we started working wonders
Something you told me that day I will always remember
"What was broken we will fix and we will make it better"
As our story unfolds, a thought came to you
With my animating tools there's more we can do
Once on a venture so bold
We may have started small, but we were growing bigger
'Cause with faith and dedication we can make it major
We had our friends with us, at least those in favor
And with the way it's going now we'll see a brilliant future
Soon our products got sold, our story got told
We'd risen from handymen to tech inventors
Once on a venture so bold
Now we are several years old, I've learned to ignore
All my shadows from back before thanks to your comfort
Now I'm not scared anymore
We've been at it for four years, my partner she still supports me
In our spare time we are joking, we are telling stories
Our new friend is with us, and we've made a life so pretty
And I've left that past behind me, you don't have to worry
Four years of work, now behold, look at how far we have come
Side by side we've built our life into a better one
All of our friends are with us, losing ourselves in our fun
One moment you were there, the next moment you were gone
Destruction struck us that day, fire pelting down like rain
And against this foe our weapons were but folly
And you were caught in his raid
So many died in that raid, bodies burning in the flames
I couldn't save you from his slaughter, I'm so sorry
So many died on that day
Once I knew nothing but pain, you came and showed me
That life it can be safe, it can be happy
Once we were new to this place
Darkness is all that remains……
Read and review, please.
The modified Saturn V rocket that hits victim:
The recreation:
I made a video on how this rocket is built (only this rocket):
The rocket where victim used this to escape (also the logo of his company):
The recreation:
Then why did they have more than one cage in their facility?
I'll make the interactive map now,
Sorry if stuff is poorly drawn, Drawing straight lines digitally is so hard for me.......too hard.
Here's a Vic-Organization Map Update.
I've figured out the Hallway and Science Lab seen In Wanted, they are both to the far left.
I've figured out Vic's Office, it's in the blue building in the back (I did that so I could include it, and not have to make multi-stories)
I've decided to put the testing lab into that right garage, though I doubt it's the entire garage.
I've now realized the way I put the elevator (far left), makes it so that the way you enter the Box Chamber room isn't consistent.
You see in The Box, Victim and his crew enter from the right, but that's the garage,
So Now I think the Box Chamber is seperated into two seperate rooms, which does make sense as a walkway that you can see in the outside art of the building isn't present in the box room (where it's assumed the entire center is that room)
Victim, I love you, but right now, I hate your lab's design..
I'm currently trying to make a image for a planned Victim Organzation Interactive map, and I've lost my actual mind 10 times, and I haven't even made it to The Box.
I've spent too long figuring out where on earth Vic's office is and the Elevator to get to it. Meanwhile trying to figure out what that blue building in the back is.
That place is actually fairly massive.
OOHHHH IM EXCITED FOR THIS ONE, CUZ YEAH!! this one is gonna have massively large argument with two particular people...I mean sticks.
A little recap: Faith has betrayed them, victim confronted the trio and they now have to meet the fate of getting sent to the same prison cell with The Second Coming, which they don't know about.
Foreshadowing text of the chapter: All of a sudden, a shockwave broke the air.
GRAB YOUR POPCORN BOISS, DIS ABOUT TO BE A ROUGH CHAPTER
Pings:
Enjoy! Or not...you know da drill!
---
We saw a dim interior and an orange hollow head, who passed out and started sleeping peacefully in the dark. But my attention turn towards getting out of here.
"Conner, we should wake them up so we can possibly get us out of here."
"He wants us to get out, to get ourselves into another trap. That's why he sent us here, because of me. It's my fault."
"Conner, we have to get out."
"No."
"YES!"
"This is all part of his elaborate plan, I used TO WORK HERE!" Conner raised his voice.
I didn't believe him. "Maybe you still work with him, HUH!? MAYBE YOU DID THIS, BETRAY ALL OF US AND POSSIBLY HARMED CARMEN!!"
"HOW DID I HARM CARMEN!? HOW!?" Conner elaborated.
"WELL, SHE WAS SO AGGRESSIVE AGAINST THE WORKERS, SHE NEVER..EVER DOES THAT!!!" I yelled.
"SHE CLEARLY WAS DETERMINED TO HELP ME! I TREATED HER NICELY!!! MAYBE YOUR THE ONE TREATING HER SO BADLY!!!"
"ME!? I KNEW HER SINCE COLLEGE! HER HEX, S*X AND EVERYTHING!!! Carmen Baby-blue, #5b87a6, Mittsstick!!!"
"YOU EVEN DOXXED HER TO ME!!! HOW INSENSITIVE!!!" The mutt dared to say.
"HOW ARE YOU THE ONE TO SAY THAT WHEN YOU KEEP MANIPULATING AND GASLIGHTING THIS POOR STICK!!! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?!?!"
It was a stupid argument I had to say, but angry people do really dumb things sometimes. But the thought got pushed by Conner's sudden outburst.
"Look...WHY DID YOU AGREE TO THIS!?"
The audacity with this stick, I mean, I could list a bazillion things on why I agreed to be with him.
"YOU LITERALLY STALK US!!!"
"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO OTHER THAN GET STALKED MYSELF BY THIS STUPID ORGANIZATION!? I NEEDED HELP!!!"
"YOU COULD'VE ASKED ME!!!"
"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN YELLING AT ME, LIKE RIGHT NOW!!!"
The silence was so full, I can't think of a way to come back. After all, he could have chosen someone else instead of me. I thought I would have a regular day at work but I got myself into this. But, I need to get out and the stick blocking my path is this stupid b*tch.
I slapped him with all my might.
"Geez, never knew you could throw hands...MY TURN!!"
We started wrestling in a confined space like siblings in a baby cage. He's got good stamina and strength and I started wheezing immediately. The hastley coughs were obvious but I kept fighting him, slamming him up against the bars and getting pushed back when he hit my pressure points. A racket and commotion was formed in the dawn cell. We both saw Carmen huddled into a ball. Then we blamed each other and fought more. The noises being louder and louder with each winning comeback.
"WHY DID YOU STALK US, PERVERT!? JEEZ-"
"WHAT...WOULD YOU DO IN MY SITUATION!? TWIG!!!"
"TWIG!? I AM AN ADULT MAN YOUR hiGHneSS!!! TAKE THAT!" I kicked him in the cr*tch.
"Ohh....sss....OWWW!!! WHAT KIND OF LUNITIC DOES THAT!?"
"YOU WOULD DO THAT TO ME ONCE YOUR DONE WITH MY USE, MOTHERF*CKER!!!"
"SWEARING LIKE A P*D*PHILE HU-WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK MAN!?"
"THAT'S SUPPOSED TO HURT, YOU KNOCK-OFF PIXAR VILLAIN!! YOU CAMOUFLAGED ZOOKEEPER!!! YOU MALE MALLIFICENT!!! YOU-"
All of a sudden, a shockwave broke the air. It was by a screaming, a yelling, and they were announcing something.
"STOP!!!"
The force made all the bars rattle and creak, and all of us were astound. I even heard murmurs of the workers outside, they also must've heard of the rage.
"WHO WOKE ME U-ohhh...Kay." They stopped their yelling.
The "orange juice" was visibly confused, scratching their head and looking at us with a raised eyebrow. They never seen us before in their jail cell, presumably.
"What. The. Alan."
"Who's Alan?" I spoke to him.
"My creator, he's the best...I miss him but my friends....where could they be?"
"Well, we might help you! What's your name? victim called you 'orange juice's but that's clearly wrong."
"Orange juice- no...uhhmm.."
We all chuckled a little, relieving all of our burdens and pain for a moment. Their face turned pink due to embarrassment.
"Second, but sometimes it's Orange. victim was kinda almost there. Heh..."
"You must care about your friends a lot, do you." Carmen joined in the conversation.
"Yeah... there's Blue, Yellow, Red and Green...my best friend."
An idea popped into my head. We saw Yellow getting kidnapped and the rest left there, knocked out by the shades stick. The rest of us were also thinking the same thing. We should give this stick the good news, they must've been here for a while... without a visit from their friends.
"We saw them earlier on the parking lot. If you can help us escape of course..." I answered.
---
WOOHOO! I'm not sure if I should give it a good or bad ending so here's the deal.
Heads or Tails?
Second got woken up from his slumber, lolz 🤣 🤣 🤣
Poor sec.
JDKSLCKGLSFLOGOGIRLF
I WAS TYPING THEN ACTUALLY ACCIDENTALLY RELOAD THIS PAGE AND NOW I HAD TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN DKDKGKGKKGIGGK
Pings:
BIG BOI CHAPTER THAT I HAVE TO WRITE AGIAN WAHAHHAHAHAA
Is it someone that you can trust? That's literally her name...
ENJOYYY OR NOT IDC FOOSJGKFKFJT
---
It was a beautiful afternoon today, contrasting the climatic ride of yesterday night.
Well away from work and well away from the city, we were ready for the mission, just crossing my fingers that Conner finds us a better job after this. We already were on the truck and about to arrive. During the ride, we had a hard time of the highway, especially when I tried grabbing something, but a diamond sword went out and basically stabbed someone in the face, causing a massive car accident and an explosion that sent shockwaves.
Just imagine the kill count already.
But the highway incident was over and we finally arrived at the primace of RockeTech. The parking lot is massive staring out from the shelter of a van, and the worker was going to grab something until they saw us.
"Hey!-"
Carmen had already tackled them and choked the life out of the gray stickfigure. That was quite unexpected from her, and I hope that didn't have to do with Conner. We then equiped our gear and used the color inspector, then used the fill bucket tool on us. It felt kinda weird being all gray, but it was okay I guess, I felt normal at least. We wore the hats and stole the uniform- Carmen and me were looking away once Conner disposed the poor worker. He showed us the uniform and duplicated it. One by one we changed, and abandoned our main backpack. But we huddled to the van when other sticks were exiting another van.
"Hyaaa! Come at me!" Taunted the red one.
"Yeah, come get us!" Followed the green stick.
"Guys, this is a stealth mission, not a surprise attack! Ugh!" A yellow stick was annoyed.
I figured these were dumb teenagers just doing weird stuff, maybe wanting to do graffiti, but no spray cans in sight. A gray stick found us hiding and gestured us to attack. We complied, not wanting to sound suspicious and surrounded the squad. The group was made out of a green stick, a yellow stick, a blue stick, and a red one, his personality somewhat reminding me of Carmen but more braver. The blue one tried to feel his pockets, only for an internal shock being expressed on his face.
"Yellow...I don't have potions on me, please don't tell me you forgot your command block staff.."
"Blue, it's okay! We were rushing outside to see why Chosen wanted to grab Second, and you didn't have time. We never knew we would get ourselves into this situation... I'm also sorry for not bringing my stuff!"
The conversation was wholesome but I was swept off my feet by the green stick. I should refer to him as Green, it seems this gang goes by their color names, they don't seem to have common names. Some sticks simply don't have a common names but usually Outernet sticks do. While analyzing the new sticks, Carmen had to suffer the same fate as me, because it was part of not getting discovered. The stick figures were eventually knocked out by a pivot stick with a white head and shades, he used a pole that could seemingly extend and was also using a blue lasso. Brutal.
"YELLOW! NO-"
Blue was beaten against a truck and eventually collapsed before he could even finish yelling. I could feel the pain of being forcefully separated as Yellow was taken to possible custody in the building. He was even crying and begging to let go of him. All of us got up, but I couldn't tell who is who. We didn't make a secret code or anything, the flaw of our plan. I touched the red stick with my foot, he seems to be alive, I heard him make a groan. I then walked to the building, hearing the voice of Carmen.
"Oh hi! How's your day?"
"Good, now whisper..Carmen.."
"Oh yeah.." she said in a whispery voice.
"Guys! Let's make a secret code so we don't get mixed up..okay?" I said softly. We all agreed that our secret code should be: "What's the look at?" And the reply should be: "I'm (full name)." It was a simple yet random code, just in case we get mixed up with a crowd of gray.
We entered the RockeTech building, so much space and filled with tech, offices, launching pads for the hovering motorcycles that Carmen saw, more offices, a lab, and a white box with The Chosen One tied up and a very secured jail cell. That guy must be a very good escapist, or someone similar to The Chosen One, maybe even the Dark Lord. I even heard banging from the secured jail cell, refined steel all around and not a single bit of rust. Some voices could be heard in there, probably saying "help" or "I didn't know I swear." Or something else that my ears couldn't pick up, that's how insulated the cell was.
We had infiltrated the building successfully. But now, I wanted to save The Chosen One for saving me, so I turned towards Carmen and asked her a request.
"Hey, let's get The Chosen One outta here."
"The Chosen One, out? That's disobeying the boss...but I won't snitch!" This voice wasn't Carmen..I was talking to-
"Well, I haven't seen you in a while...my name is Faith Dull-Gray, #8c928c, Goodstick! Kinda of a long name, you can call me Faith!
I had no words, I was now officially lost and had to go undercover by myself.
---
This chapter was supposed to be way longer until I lost all of my progress and had to restart ;(
I had a random burst of productivity yesterday and finished a whole chapter in a day. It'll probably be a while until the next chapter for reasons that I won't go into here, but I figured I'd post this one anyways.
Previous chapter: https://animatorvsanimation.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000159283
Pings: @BadGrammarCat @BigPerritoFan @SpacedOut925 @Winter78987 @The Slimy Stump
“Who? What orange guy?” Dennis persisted.
“Not your business,” Barbara said, returning to her clipboard full of scribbled notes.
“How am I supposed to help when I have no idea what’s going on?” Dennis said.
“You’re not.”
“Isn’t that what Sheila said? For me to help you guys do whatever it is you do?” Dennis said, following Sheila as she wandered from the various computer monitors and file cabinets.
“Not what I heard,” Barbara retorted, “and I have more important things to worry about.”
“Then let me help! What can I help you with?”
“You can help me by sitting quietly over there and not touching anything.”
Dennis decided to hold his tongue. Maybe annoying one of his bosses wasn’t the best strategy to prove himself. Maybe she’d be a little less touchy if he left her alone.
He walked to the computer where Kevin sat. “I don’t want to seem pushy or anything, but I need a whole, printed page full of exposition. What are we doing here? Where did this pencil come from? Who is the ‘orange guy’ that Barbara keeps referring to?”
Kevin smiled. “Can I give you the short answers instead?”
“Please do.”
“The pencil was confiscated from an orange dude who defended one of Boss’s enemies. That orange dude is now in custody, and Larry and Howie have gone to get him.” Kevin said, returning to his work.
“You mean stolen,” Dennis said.
Kevin shrugged. “Sheila’s willing to do anything to make the greatest technology known to stick-kind. And sometimes, we have to reverse-engineer it. Nothing wrong with that.”
“What do you mean when you say ‘in custody’?” Dennis said, “Like, at a police station?”
Kevin looked at Dennis blankly. “Don’t you have intern stuff to do or something? I thought you said the short answer would suffice.”
Dennis sighed. Kevin was right. Even though his biggest questions had been answered, new ones had popped up like weeds after a good rain. He wanted to know more about the orange stick figure. Maybe he’d even get to meet the guy. Well, he’d gotten what he wanted. Now it was back to work.
“Barbara,” Dennis pleaded, “Do you need any more help with… anything?”
“No,” Barbara said before gruffly shouting, “Kevin!”
“What?” Kevin hollered back.
“I need you to go in the isolation chamber and try drawing a shark.”
“Yeah, not happening, Barbie.”
“Come on!” Barbara said, “It’ll just take, like, two seconds.”
“Then why don’t you do it?”
Dennis saw his chance. The two were upset enough at each other for him to take advantage of it. He remembered what his mother had told him when he was little. It was something about helping without being told and taking every opportunity to be kind.
Dennis’s timid footsteps were not heard between the two blabbering scientists. And he wasn’t noticed when he picked up the pen, either. But when he started to draw, the room fell silent.
Dennis’s hand movements were fluid, his footwork was a dance. When he was finished, he was all out of breath.
“How— how did I do?” Dennis said, gasping.
Barbara’s face was stone-cold. Kevin was facepalming. Dennis had the feeling that they weren’t happy.
“That… might be a shark,” Kevin said, trying to sound cheerful, “I think you’re getting better.”
“Dennis,” Barbara said, hardly able to form words, let alone derogatory comparisons, “Garbage, Dennis. Like, why do you suck so much? I told you we were done. It’s a simple direction. Did it sound like I wanted your help? Was it implied by my tone of voice?”
Dennis shrank back and endured the berating in silence. Barbara was just getting started when Kevin elbowed her. “Shut up, he’s here.”
“Don’t tell me to shut up!” Barbara said defiantly before turning around to see Howard and Larry return with the orange stick figure. Then she shut up.
Dennis almost forgot his shame, watching the stranger approach. He must’ve been gaping. His eyes lit up with boyish excitement as if it were Christmas morning.
The stick figure walked slowly with his eyes downcast. His hands were held tightly behind his back by some weird high-tech handcuffs wielded by Howard. Why was everything way cooler than it needed to be?
“Dennis, put the pencil down, please,” Kevin said.
Dennis looked down. Right. He was still holding the pencil. Even if he wanted to, Dennis couldn’t argue. Not in front of this newcomer whom he admired so. It didn’t make sense, but he felt as if he were standing in the presence of some important person. A hero, maybe.
Dennis complied and left the isolation chamber, taking his place beside Kevin to watch the proceedings.
Howard and Larry led the orange guy into the chamber. Barbara took her place at the console. She erased the handcuffs, and the man stared in amazement. He tried to follow Howard and Larry out of the chamber, but Barbara activated the shield. The wall was solid again, and the stranger couldn’t escape.
Barbara smirked with satisfaction. She switched the cursor to selection mode and clicked on the newcomer. He was now trapped in an even smaller box. He started to panic, pacing around the room, feeling each wall. They were all as strong as they were clear. Dennis felt his stomach lurch. This stranger was afraid.
“Excuse me? You, yes, you. Pick up that pencil and draw something.” Barbara said, pointing at the pencil on the console.
The stranger ignored her. He continued running around the room. There had to be a way out.
Barbara was done playing. In this chamber, she was in total control. She grabbed the stickman. His limbs became stiff. He couldn’t move. Barbara picked him up and set him in front of the pencil.
“M’kay, are you done yet? Let’s get to work. Just pick up that pencil and draw.” Barbara said.
The stranger picked up the pencil. “Really?”
Howard and Larry started drawing furtively. Dennis held back a laugh. Could so much be gained by the way he was holding the pencil?
“Just draw something, idiot,” Barbara said, rolling her eyes, “You short on ideas? Draw an eel.”
