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John's Story in the Alpha Timeline

Chapter Text

Reader: Be the troll.

Okay, the reader can totally do that.

You are now a troll.

This makes no sense to you because you are sure that you have never been anything else in your entire life but a troll. But whatever, you are tired and miserable as shit.

Because of this you will treat everything and everyone as shit.

Troll: Be less of a whiny asshole.

You wonder what makes you a whiny asshole. You just got through an entire game and beat it like a boss. Now you find yourself on some ridiculous lab with a huge four panel screen. You find a nice piece of equipment which you plan to lodge right at the screen.

Screen: Flicker.

Troll: Flip the fuck out.

Oh you can definitely do this. What was that even about? Why did that screen . . .?

One panel flickers to an island.

Troll: Focus on the panel.

You focus on the panel and turn a knob to zoom in. You continue this until you can focus on a . . . is that a hive? It’s a very complex hive if anything.

Troll: Zoom in even closer.

You zoom in and start to find living creatures.

Troll: Focus on the creatures already!

Alright! Alright! You don’t understand why these creatures are so important.

Troll: Suddenly realize why the creatures are so important.

Oh wait a second. These are humans. You can’t believe that you have found humans!

What are humans doing on this screen?

Troll: Observe Humans for a while.

You find the urge to observe these fascinating aliens. When you have talked to humans before they have always interested you.

Troll: Find the human wigglers. Focus on them.

You turn the knob and focus on two human wigglers. You know that in their language they are called “Children,” but you do not care right now. You also notice that the creatures look oddly similar and familiar, but you cannot place it right now.

Troll: Watch the “Children.”

You watch them and one of the children is fighting with a full grown human. You believe that the “child” is a male and is fighting with a human female, or a “woman.”

The “woman” is apparently trying to force the “boy” (that is a male child is called, you are so good at this shit), and is constantly pushing a pastry toward his face.

The other “child”, a “girl,” is trying to calm down the boy. Hmmm, maybe you are watching an auspistice in the making.

The “woman” says something that makes the “boy” stop. She hands over the pastry and he takes it disdainfully. He then gets a mischievous facial expression and chucks the pastry into the “woman’s” face. The “girl” giggles.

You swear that you thought she was going to kill them right there.

However, the “woman” instead sighs and points in the upward direction that the children follow.

Panel: Follow the “children.”

As the panel you conquer this miraculously.

Troll: Continue to watch the human “children.”

Why would you ever stop? You watch as the “girl” tries to comfort the “boy.” It has no affect. The boy continues to rant about in words you cannot hear. You really wish that you could hear the words. They could quite frankly be the sweetest words of hate that you would ever hear.

You then realize something about the two humans; they are “siblings.” “Siblings” are when two humans reproduce more than once and create similar “children.” You remember this being explained to you once by a human.

The panel then skips a couple of days and goes a nighttime mode.

Many humans are now in the hive, or “house,” and are communicating very politely with one another. Perhaps this is a festival, or what you heard are called parties?

One of the guests that you think has had too much to drink from the liquid that is served here is getting ready to leave in a human flying machine. A pretty low tech one at that.

While the drunk human climbs into the machine, you notice that the “boy” is climbing in as well. No one is even noticing this!

The “boy” however is getting watched by the “girl” who looks very upset right now. The “boy” gestures to the “girl” to come with him.

But she refuses.

The “boy” says goodbye as the machine takes him far away off the island.

Panel: Show a montage of the “boy’s” next few years.

The troll watches the panel as it shows him the “boy” growing up into a “man.” As the years go by, you watch as the “boy” stands around the streets talking to people and making them laugh. The people in response hand the “boy” coins.

The panel ends at a time where the “man” is seen in front of a small store advertising comedic goods.

He is smiling because he knows that today is going to be a good day.

==>Be John.

Chapter Text

You look outside your new shop. The sun is bright and the air is cool. You have a feeling that today is going to be a good day.

And why not? Today is the day when you are going to open your new Joke Shop. After your first few tours as a comedian became a huge success, you settled down for a while and opened a nice little shop. You have never felt this independent since you left the Batterwich and pursued your dreams.

Of course that was no easy task. You spent a few weeks tired and hungry on the streets, but managed anyway.

You have a name of course. Everything and everyone has a name. What is your name again?

John. Yes John!

Everyone knows the famous John Crocker! Your remarkable comedic performances have entertained all who have witnessed them.

But enough introduction.

You celebrate your first day as a Joke Shop owner, manager, employee, everything! You have yet to understand how hard it will be to manage the store all by yourself.

You walk into the store and turn the Closed sign into an Open sign. You are so excited today! You love comedy and enjoy doing stand-ups, but still feel the need to teach others about it. So you created this Joke Shop.

Of course it isn’t called a Joke Shop. That would be stupid and you are smarter than that.

No the store is called the “Ha-Ha-Torium.” It’s where you sell merchandise that you and other companies created. You already have quite a name for yourself so you expect business to be booming of course.

Be a few hours later.

Why has no one come in yet? You expected business to be booming hours ago. But no one has come! What is wrong with this town? Did you move into a town without a sense of humor?

You grumble to yourself in hate. Why doesn’t anyone come in already?

You then decide that no one is coming in because your rubber chickens are out of order. Yes! Haha of course that’s it! No other reason but that! Haha oh you silly chickens, stop being out of order right this second!

Yeah, you are probably going crazy. But nonetheless, you reorganize the rubber chickens.

Suddenly, a ding from your door’s bell is rung. “Ahh,” you say to yourself, “customers.” You knew that the rubber chickens being disorganized keep the customers away.

You turn to greet your customer and are ready to give him the best service ever!

Er . . . you mean her. Yes . . . her . . . with that thick shiny hair, those alluring eyes, and her tall, figure with those hips. Ahem, uh you mean “Hello! How may I be of service to you today Madame?” You show the beauty your biggest smile in order to show your loyalty and impress her.

She remains unimpressed, “Yeah hi. What exactly is this place? This used to 8e my 8eauty salon.”

Oh god she doesn’t even know what this place is. “It’s my joke shop! I am John Crocker, and I sell only the finest merchandise from comedies all over, including me! Surely you have heard of my work?”

“Sorry, 8ut no. I don’t really care much for 8land comedy.” You are appalled.

“What! But how can you refuse such marvelous work! It’s quite frightening dear Madame.”

“Look,” She said, “I didn’t come here to 8e insulted! 8esides, isn’t the customer always riiiiiiiight?”

You think for a moment in front of this beautiful dame, “I guess you’re right, but I can’t quite consider you a customer until you buy something, right?”

She smirks, “I guess you have me there. I must admit, you do have a sense of humor. I enjoy that in a maaaaaaaan.” She stresses that last part and makes you blush.

The woman walks over to where your endorsed merchandise is, she points to your picture on the box, “Is this you?”

You smile, “Yes, that is my complete magician magic kit that promises to amaze your friends with real magic, but that is just a promise the advertising company wrote to bring the attention.”

She flashes you a smug look, “8ut I thought you were a comedian not a magician?”

This annoys you slightly, “I still am a comedian ya’ know, I am just doing this in between my GLOBAL tours. I just enjoyed doing some magic tricks when I was younger.”

“Oh reeeeeeeeally? Well,” She grabbed a beginner’s magic kit box and went up to the cash register, “I guess you’ll just have to show me your tricks when I come 8ack. I’ll 8uy this for now.”

You are a bit stunned by your entire conversation with the woman. “What do you mean, for now?”

“You can’t honestly expect me to not come 8ack after this? Talking to you is a gr8 deal of fun.” She then flashed you a smile that dazzles you for a second.

“Well thank you for your purchase Madame! You’re my first customer!”

“W8, really? How long have you 8een open?”

You try to hide your embarrassment and fail completely, “Well uhh only a few hours?” you mutter.

She tries to hold back her laughter. “How does a faaaaaaaamous comedian have no 8usiness for his genuine joke shop? Do you suck that 8ad?”

“It’s not funny. I don’t know what happened? I put up advertisement.”

She stopped laughing, “How much advertisement did you put up?”

“An ad in the local newspaper- WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME!”

The lady had trouble controlling herself this time, “You must 8e new. No8ody reads the local newspaper. IT SUCKS!”

Your shoulders drop, “Oh, I guess that explains why my business is failing.”

You drop your head down, so you don’t notice that the woman gives you a look of pity, “Hey there, just find 8etter advertisement space, and you’ll do fine. Why I 8et you’ll have all the 8usiness tomorrow. All of it!”

You try to silence a sniffle, “Really?”

“Yeah! Why I would gamble that 8y next week, you’ll have to keep those customers out of your door!”

“Oh thank you and here is your new magic kit. I look forward to seeing you in the future.”

She smiles, not smirks, at you and walks away, “I look forward to coming 8ack, Mr. Crocker.”

“Please Madame, call me John.”

“Alright then, John.”

She was almost out the door when you remembered something, “Miss! What’s your name?”

“It’s Veronica Sergent, and you 8etter not forget it.” And with that, she left your store.

You watch her walk out your door, but you do not realize how important she will be in your close upcoming future. But you’re not thinking of your future right now. All you’re doing is watching those hips of hers sway. But you’ll deny ever watching her hips sway. And Veronica Sergent will deny ever making those hips sway even harder when she walked out of the Ha-Ha-Torium.

Chapter Text

Be the broad beauty.

You can definitely do that. In fact you wouldn’t want to be anything else!

Tell us about yourself.

Your name is Veronica Sergent, and quite frankly you don’t like to talk about yourself. Not personally at least. You LOVE to boast about yourself to others; however you do
not care to talk about your personal life with others. Of course talking to yourself would make you crazy and you would be sent to an asylum, and then your story would be
over.

So for now you’ll just present your name.
It is currently the middle of winter, and the snow has started to fall. It leaves a crisp layer of snow everywhere, and if you were more romantic you would try to drag you

mate out with you for a walk like all the other couples that you see. However cliché romances like that are stupid to you. You also do not currently have a mate, and you are just walking over to the HaHa-Torium.

You can’t remember how many times you’ve tried to convince John to change the store’s name.

You look inside the shop through its glass windows and notice that business is booming today. John’s business has in fact been booming ever since he took your advice. Taking
your advice is always a good idea because like you told John, you have all of the advice, allllllll of it.

The door moves at the push of your hand, and the bell dings calling attention to your entrance. John looks up from his cash register and gives you a desperate smile. He’s
trying to juggle twenty or so impatient customers and is having no luck. He holds up a finger to you requesting that you wait. John then leaves his cash register to point out
an item to a shopper or something different altogether, but quite frankly you DON’T CARE.

John is making you wait and nobody makes you wait! You are going to have to lecture him on the consequences of making you wait, but you take a deep breath and decide to help
him like you always do. Because you pity that poor sap.

You have a serious problem with pitying that fool.

Be the stressful owner.

You would rather not be called that even though it’s completely true.

You’re freaking out because you did not think the new product would be so popular. Quite frankly you think that snakes in a peanut can are a stupid idea, but that’s just
because you have a severe peanut allergy.

The customer that you are currently handling is being very difficult even though you are doing your best to help him. You quickly find the item you were looking for and show
him that it indeed will be a huge laugh at parties. You then head back towards the cash register to handle some more customers only to see that they are already being
handled.

Why is Veronica at the cash register?

You watch Veronica as she works with the surprisingly now nervous customers. “Allllllll right, who’s first?” she asks.

A nervous but brave man walks up to the register and presents his desired purchase. Veronica takes the item, punches some numbers into the cash register, and comes up with
the total which the man pays for.

“Thank you, please come 8ack again!” she says with a fake cheery voice.

Soon enough, all of the customers are taken care of by Veronica, and the store becomes empty except for you and Veronica.

You walk up to Veronica a little surprised. “What just happened?”

She slyly looks back at you, “I took care to the customers.”

A little hesitant you respond, “But why?”

You watch Veronica as she plays her response through her head before she answers you, “8ecause you were busy and I don’t like to w8t. You of all people should know that.”

“I do know that,” you respond, “It’s just that I was really busy today. You saw that!”

She seems to be struggling with something in her mind, “Well . . . why are you so 8usy? Don’t you have any other workers that you can dump your work on?”

You don’t respond.

“Well? I want an answer John.”

You continue not to respond.

Veronica looks at you with disbelief “John, do you even have any employees?”

You attempt to avoid her gaze the best you can.

You fail miserably. “Well I don’t know, I thought that I could handle this all on my own or something like that.”

She rolled her eyes, “Welp, that’s it then.”

“Huh?”

Veronica began to take some money out of the cash register.

You started to panic “Wait, what are you doing Veronica?”

“Well,” she starts taking out some ones, “I’m taking my salary for the week. If I’m going to be working here I would like my payment to come now for the first week.”

You can’t believe what you just heard, “Wait what?”

“John you o8viously can’t work here without meeeeeeee. So I’m going to work here with you from now on.”

“Bu-but you can’t just hire yourself without consulting me first!”

She rolls her eyes again, “You already showed me that you can’t do this alone, I proved that I can work, and 8esides,” Veronica takes off her glasses and stares into your eyes, “Don’t you enjoy my company?”

You gulp and start sweating for some reason, “Well –uh- that may all be true,” she smiles at that, “but there are other important factors that I need to know about you before
you work here. Personal things.”

She becomes shaken when you mentioned that, “Oh, like what?”

“Um . . . Do you have a good sense of humor?”

You both stare at each other for eight seconds before she burst out laughing.

“John, do you really think that hanging out here for as long as I have you wouldn’t know whether or not I have a sense of humor?” You blush a little by your embarrassment.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” You raise your hands up in defeat, “I guess I have no reason to deny you working here.”

She smiles at you, “Thanks John, I aprec8t you hiring me.” She sticks out her hand for you to shake it.

You reach out to return the gesture, and start to correct her on how she hired herself. But you do not get the chance.

“Ahhh!” you pull you hand out in shock and watch Veronica laugh like crazy.

“Hahahahahahahaha! I can’t 8elieve the joy 8uzzer worked! And you say I don’t have a sense of humor.”

She continues to laugh and you join her. Well played Sergent. Well played.

Chapter Text

Continue to be John:

You continue to be John of course, you don’t have any special powers that allows you to change shape, but that would be really cool.

You are currently driving in a cab back towards your shop. You’ve been on a minor tour for a month, and Veronica has managed the shop flawlessly in your absence by herself. She has proven time and time again that she is a star employee, if not a little rude to the customers at times. However you do not care because she gets the job done and is a great friend to you.

Your relationship with Veronica has only grown (if that’s possible) while she continues to work at the HaHa-Torium. You’ve both learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and weakness, but Veronica denies having anything; however you know better, and you both know how to compliment each other’s assets.

You both are probably the best of friends you could ever want. This is perfectly acceptable because you’ve read that no inter-office relationship should exceed that. She tells you about how she spends her nights (which is usually spent dating or some other bragging activity), and you talk about . . . okay your life quite frankly is not that interesting.

You see from inside the cab that the store is currently empty except for Veronica being bored at the cash register. It doesn’t surprise you that it’s slow today; you’ve been having waves of business on and off.

You pay the cab fare and wish the driver a good day. Then you turn to your shop and walk forward.

You enter your shop and watch as Veronica immediately lights up.

“John! You’re finally here! It’s 8een so long without you.”

You chuckle, “Now Veronica, don’t tell me you were that lonely without me.”

She smirks back at you, “Of course not, I just miss not 8eing able to take br8ks.”

You get a little embarrassed by her answer “Oh, well I’m here now, so do you want to take a break?”

She politely (you think) laughs at you, “Silly Pupa,” which is her strange pet name for you when she thinks you’re acting like a child; you’d rather not ask where she got the name from. “Of course I missed you, 8ut just a little. Now why don’t you tell faaaaaaaa8ulous Veronica all a8out your trip.”

And you do, obviously Veronica inserts at times actions that she would have done instead of what actually happens, but you don’t mind. You know that Veronica listens better to you than any other person that she’s been close too.

That is why you are close friends.

Veronica excuses herself after your talk to go check on some supplies in the back of the store. You are now alone at the register.

You wait over ten minutes before any action happens.

Just then you hear your shop’s door ding. You look over and see a rugged man walk into the store who’s just a little older than you. He has scars all over his face and a purple streak of hair within his black. He seems to be cautiously examining the entire store before going too far in.

You recognize him as a full grown hooligan, but you know better than to assume that he is as such. Besides, Veronica always handles the difficult customers and she isn’t here right now, so you have to deal with him.

You’re just going to have to hope for the best that he isn’t trouble.

“Hello good sir,” you say as you address the man, “How may I help you on this fine evening?”

He does a quick look over at you and decides that you are of no danger,”Yeah, I’m looking for someone, is there anyone else here?”

You start getting a little nervous, “Uhh, only my fellow employee, but she’s checking inventory right now.”

“That’s alright,” he replies, “I can wwait.”

You don’t know what to do and you are running out of options, you hate dealing with these kinds of customers. “Well are you interested in purchasing any items?”

“Shut up, are you really going to be this fucking annoying?”

You back away sensing that this guy means business. “Excuse me sir?” you stammer.

“Look asshole, I’m looking for Veron-“ he falls straight to the ground with a little blood bleeding from the back of his head.

You look up and see Veronica breathing heavily over the man holding a trick mechanical chair that falls back when sat on for only $7.99. She looks at you more scared than you have ever seen her.

“Why did you do that!?”

She slowly hides the chair behind her, “I don’t know what you mean John.”

You can’t believe this, “Bu-but there’s a bleeding unconscious man on my store’s floor! Veronica, I want to know why you almost killed him!”

Veronica leans the chair on a shelf and walks over in your direction, “I didn’t kill him. 8esides would you trust him?”

“I don’t know him Veronica! And you can’t just knock someone out if they’re slightly suspicious!”

“Well I know him John! And I know he’s dangerous, so try to 8e gr8ful.”

You calm down a little, “You know this man?”

She avoids your eyes, “Veronica, please tell me. I need to know.”

Veronica stares into your eyes a little ashamed, “John . . . he’s my-“ You hear two loud bangs, and Veronica stops talking and falls into your arms. You look behind her and see the man is barely awake holding a gun pointing at Veronica. He faints again while you try to figure out what just happened.

“Wha-What!?” You keeping looking around to find some sort of explanation for this mess, but you are unsuccessful. Veronica was shot in the left arm, and slightly grazed in the left eye. She is losing a lot of blood, and her life is slipping through your fingers.

What do you do?

You try to remember what to do, but your mind keeps blanking.

Then out of nowhere, a man walks into your store, sees two people bleeding and unconscious, and tries to walk back outside again. You call him before he leaves to go get help. He’s hesitant but complies.

You look back at Veronica as her breathing becomes strained and set yourself to save her life.

You hope you are lucky enough to save her.

Chapter Text

Veronica: Please . . . please still be alive.

You . . . you think you can do that.

You want to open your eyes, but one of them is too tired to flutter open and the other feels like its shut tight by an outside force.

Your hearing is slowly returning back to you after being almost shattered by a recognizable gunshot. The first thing that you hear is the slow but steady beat of a machine tracking your heart rate.

You want to move around and leave, but you are unable to right now. You don’t know if it’s because you are too weak, or if it’s because you are too tired, or if it’s because you don’t want to.

You slowly recall your time before you blacked out. You shudder as you remember and curse the ass that did this to you. But then you remember John.

Could he be hurt? He’s so weak and defenseless without you. You wished that you could remember if he is okay or not. Not that it matters, he will never want to talk to you again after this incident. You think that you are okay with this.

You’re used to leaving people. But those people aren’t John.

One of your eyes starts to leak, but you order it to stop. You do not cry. You can dramatically mope, but never cry.

You try to bring up your hands to stop the leaking, but find something amidst. You can’t fucking move your hands. They even feel like your hands are in the same position as your eyes.

In fact, you can hardly move at all, and you do not know why. You are not okay with this, not at all.

You struggle to move as much as you can, but all it creates is pain. However you keep moving. You refuse to stop moving for as long as you can.

But two firm hands force you to lay still. They pin you to your bed, but that just increases your fury. You struggle even harder under the hands, but the hands just push you down a little firmer.

“Stop moving Veronica!”

The sudden voice tells you to stop, and you listen to it. You don’t know why, but the voice comforts you. You quickly remember that there was only one other person who could comfort you that easily. You try very hard then to open your eyes wide open as fast as you can, but you realize that the speed is slow and you are having great difficulty opening one eye and no success with the other.

But one eye does eventually open to blinding light, but you refuse to close it. Luckily for you though, a figure goes over the light and gives you shade. Your eye thanks the figure.

“Veronica . . . are you okay? I’ve been so worried.” The same voice says.

You find enough of your voice to quietly reply “John?”

You watch as your friend John lights up and moves to hug you but he stops.

You of course are annoyed, “John, what’s your problem?” You usually are annoyed by all the times that he hugs you, and the time that you actually want- wait no, you don’t want a hug.

“Veronica, are you okay?”

Your annoyance that he would treat you like you are weak is completely worth straining your voice, “What do you mean? Of course I’m okay! I’m always okay, 8n’t I?” You suddenly notice the environment of where you are; a hospital bedroom with John sitting in a chair next to your bed looking like he had not slept all night.

John keeps looking at you wanting only to hug you and assure you that everything will be okay, “Veronica. I don’t know what to tell you.”

But he apparently doesn’t need to because a new burst of sunshine walks into the room, “)(ello my little patient! I am Nurse Peiser, but you can call me Fifi! I’m so glubbing )(appy to meet you! And sea t)(at you are still alive”

You are quickly horrified at how happy this nurse is and from what she just said, “Oh my god, what?”

John carefully rests his hand on your shoulder, “Fifi, is she going to be okay?”

She giggles, “S)(ore she will! Wit)( the Doctor’s treatment, and mine, t)(ere was no way that you would be anyfin less!”

John gently rubs his hand on my shoulder, “Well that’s good; I was so worried that I’d lose her.”

The nurse flashed a toothy grin, “Well it’s all t)(anks to you t)(at s)(e’s still swimming.” You look at John.

“What does she mean John?”

John is too bashful to answer your question right now, but no need to worry because Nurse Giggle Fish will answer for him. “T)(is young man, Jo)(n Crocker saved you life yesterday. )(e was smart enough)( to know )(ow to cut off t)(e blood flow to prevent furt)(er bleeding in t)(e arm, and )(ow to plug up t)(e wound to prevent infection. Wit)(out Jo)(n, well miss . . .,” she quickly looks at the charts for your name, “Veronica in t)(e best case scenario, you would )(ave lost your left eye, and we would )(ave to amputate your left arm. But because of Jo)(n all you’ll )(ave in t)(e end is a few scars! And I’m s)(ore t)(at t)(ose will go away wit)( time and makeup.”

All this time you noticed two things. One the giggling nurse would not stop looking at John without some sort of flirting attitude, and for some reason it annoyed you. And two, John did more for you than anyone has ever done in all of your life. You always thought that John was some sort of little boy who needed your help to survive, but somehow during the time you’ve spent with him he’s grown into a man.

You want to reach out to John somehow, tell him how you feel. But you just don’t know how, so you try your best by whispering to him “John I-“ but you are interrupted by a certain perky nurse.

“Now as for t)(e man w)(o s)(ot you, )(e )(as taken full responsibility as some sort of jealous ex-boyfriend,” she smirks at John as if knowing some sort of secret between you and her that you both are excluding from John, “anyway )(e is currently )(ealing in prison, and )(e will not be getting out for a long time. Now I’ll be back in an )(our to c)(eck up on you. )(eal fast!” She exits the room leaving you and John alone.

You both avoid each other’s eyes for at least eight minutes. You try during that entire time to get the courage to tell John how you feel, but you just can’t. Not now at least. John breaks the silence first, “Veronica, what really happened with that guy?” You avoid his question, so he answers again but firmer, “Veronica, what happened between you and that guy?”

You try not to look at John, “I don’t kn8w wh8t you’re t8lking a8out.” He really is a full grown man; you just can’t push him around anymore.

“Veronica, I want to know, and stop lying to me! I really care about you and I want to help. I don’t ever want to see you hurt again.” You take a chance and look into his eyes. You regret it immediately, you were hoping for rage and fury, but instead you find sadness and concern. It nearly breaks your heart. It feels like you’ve stabbed yourself in the back because you’ve failed him.

You don’t want to disappoint him.

“Veronica,” his uses his calming words and holds your hands, “I want to help you.”

You almost lost it there, but you don’t cry, not now.

“J8hn, I . . . I w8nt to tell y8u.”

“Then tell me Veronica, I’m here to listen to you.” He smiles, “And I know you love to talk.”

You realize that you want to talk. For the first time you want to talk about your personal life, but not to just anyone. Just John.

You calm yourself down and prepare for a long talk, “John, it started when I was eight.” You voice cracks at the eight so John hands you a paper cup of water. You nod him a thanks and continue your story.

“I was just a little girl. I lived in the nicest place surrounded 8y the worst. The worst including drug dealers, murderers, gangs and mafias, and 8y far the worst of them all . . . my mom.”

John gives you a mixed look of confusion and shock, “What do you mean Veronica?”

You wave away his words with your good arm, “I’ll explain. I grew up in a mansion. It was so huge and 8eautiful, 8ut empty. The house that I grew up in was a hollow home. I got lonely often 8eing all 8y myself, 8ut I got used to it. The only people who came in the house were my mom, her ‘associates’, and her boyfriends.” You smirk at this, “She
was a real man-eater.”

John only returns a reassuring smile encouraging you to continue. You oblige, “It happened that when I was eight I couldn’t sleep 8ecause I had a 8ad dream or something. I was heading towards the kitchen for a glass of water when I found her in one of the rooms. She was with her associates, and some other man that I did not recognize. He was tied up and gagged. I have never seen fear as terrifying as that 8efore; even now I don’t think so. I realized that she torturing him so I tried to leave quickly, 8ut mom and her associates found me.” You shudder as you remember what happens next.

“She called me into the room forced me to hold the gun, and forced my fingers to pull the trigger on the man. I watched as that man died 8ecause of me. I saw his horrified eyes glaze over. I wasn’t the same afterwards. Mom then 8rought me into her 8usiness as some sort of crazed mafia leader, and the worst part of it all is how good I was.” You stop talking for a minute trying to control your emotions.

“Please explain to me more Veronica.” John’s comforting eyes give you the strength to continue your story.

“I was a8le to carry out all the ‘missions’ without any pro8lems. I even enjoyed it after a while. I never c8nsidered that I h8d l8st my ch8ldhood.” You sip your water again. “I never received proper teaching from a normal school like any other kid. Mom just taught me everything I know. The missions she gave me were like a game, and sometimes a test. She used me to carry out her threats and raids. I ended up killing so many people.” You wait for John’s reaction to see if he hates you yet.

He only continues to watch, but now it’s like he studying you. “How many people Veronica?”

You try to remember, but you can’t. All the murders just blend together. “I don’t know I lost count.” John then breaths out a little heavy hearing you say that, and he then tries to control himself over just how crazy that is. You don’t blame him, “It was the way I was raised John. I didn’t know any 8etter 8ack then. I didn’t know how horrible I was. The man that came to the store, his name is Aaron. He was my old ‘partner in crime.’ Yes, we did date, 8ut I never really liked him. He was more of a tool I used to complete mom’s little tests. I never really understood what it was to like someone until . . .”

You look at John and he quickly gets nervous, “What, what do you mean me?”

You get a little red in the face as well, “Wh8t no! I wasn’t talking a8out y8u! I was only wondering if you could get me some more water.” You shake the empty paper cup in front of his face. He groans but gets you more water anyway. When he returns, you continue your story.

“I was talking a8out this other guy. His name is . . . was Tavon. I didn’t like him at first, he was a witness during one of my missions, so I had to kill him. 8ut he looked so pathetic John, I let him go. However, he just kept showing up somehow trying to stop or change me, and I just continued to let him get 8y. If mom would have ever found out, then I would’ve 8een screwed. I hated him for somehow making me feel guilty enough to let him go, 8ut 8efore I knew it I realized that I really liked him.”

John’s only replies with “Oh.” That’s a little annoying to you.

“Anyway, when I confronted him a8out my feelings, he said that he didn’t reciproc8 feelings for me. I didn’t understand why and I didn’t handle it well. I figured that if I intimid8ted him enough that he would really like me. I just didn’t understand how it worked, and I went too far. I raided his house, sent threatening messages to him, and assaulted the crush that he had,” you pause for a second to cough. “And worst of all, I crippled him.”

You look over at John and he seems really freaked out, “He eventually got so sick of me that he tried to kill me even as a cripple. 8ut I was so good with my reflexes that I quickly killed him 8efore he got me. I couldn’t 8elieve what I did. I hated myself so much that I tried to kill myself. Aaron found me 8efore that; we were still ‘dating,’ and stopped me. I couldn’t live with my mom afterwards. It was the first time that killing someone could hurt me so much, so I left town. I’ve never seen my mother or her associates since. They know that as long as I keep quiet that I can still live. 8ut I suspect that they sent Aaron to kill me in case I might slip up. I 8et they even ordered him to say that he was only a jealous 8oyfriend too.” You look at John and stare straight into his eyes, “I’m s8 s8rry f8r n8t t8lling y8u.” You do your best to keep your composure.

“Veronica,” John starts, “do you think that they’ll come again?”

You think for a second, “No, I think that they just wanted to send me a warning. Aaron always takes things too far.”

John leaves his chair and sits on his knees to look up at you in your bed. “I need to go check on the store now. I promise to come back every day if you want me to.” Wait, what does he mean, if you want him to? That’s not suppose to be how this goes. “Fifi told me that you’ll be in good shape in no time! So take all the time you need to get in better, and if you want to you can return to work.”

You’re shocked, “Wh8t! What do you mean? Are you saying that I still have my old jo8?”

John tries to calm you down and have you return to your bed, “Of course you still have your old job Veronica. You’re the best employee I could ever ask for. Not to mention I need someone to talk to on the slow days.” He grins at you and you wish that grin could fix everything for you, but it can’t.

“John, are you saying that after everything I told you, you’ll still take me 8ack?”

John removes the grin and turns serious, “Veronica it doesn’t matter to me who you were back then. All that matters to me is who you are now. You are one of my best friends and I really care about you. I don’t want to lose you and I know you are a changed person from before. I understand that.” John gets up from the floor and heads for the exit, “I’m not going to make you stay, but I would appreciate it if you did.” And then John left you alone.

You lie down in that bed thinking about what John just said. It seemed to last for eternity. But it doesn’t, and your energetic nurse comes back soon after John leaves. “)(ow is my patient today?”

“I’m fine.” You mutter back.

The nurse notices nothing in your attitude, “I bet! Any man like John Crocker is shore to be a keeper. You better reel )(im in before someone else catches )(im.”

“What do you mean 8y that?”

“Well COM----E ON! Isn’t )(e cute? W)(y if I wasn’t already married to t)(e man of my dreams, t)(en I would snatch )(im into my net immediately! )(e tells the B----EST jokes.” You don’t respond. “Wait! You are toget)(er rig)(t?” You shake your head. “O)( no, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anyt)(ing. You two just looked like a couple.”

“It’s alright, I’m just tired is all.” Nurse Fifi then excuses herself from your room and you are yet again left all alone.

You think of your choices in front of you and the paths they can lead. For better or for worst you have to decide quickly. Where will you decide to go?

You then wipe your eye discovering that you’ve been crying for a while.

Chapter Text

==>

Time passes during your recovery. It is late in the springtime, and you are nearly fully recovered after getting shot in the face and arm. You only have minor bandages, and you are ready to go back to work for the first time again.

You’ve spent a lot of time contemplating your relationship with John. Even though he is a great guy you are not completely sure that you belong with an innocent guy like that. You feel too damaged for him. You know he cares, but it might not be enough.

John visited you everyday like he said, even canceling some of his comedic shows for you. You just don’t know how you can be there for him. But you deserve to return the favor in any way that you can. And the only way that you can think of right now is by continuing to work for him. Usually you would leave town as soon as you could walk on two feet, but John is holding you back and you can’t leave until you’ve detach from him.

You plan on doing so during work today.

“Helloooooooo John!” You enter smugly into the store. Best not to make him suspicious.

John sees you immediately and grins, you wish he wouldn’t, “Hey Veronica! Feeling fit enough to work?”

“Why else would I 8e here Pupa? Seriously John like I would come to work if I didn’t have to?” You feel so guilty when you lie through your teeth to John. You wonder briefly if that will go away over time.

“Ha-ha I know, I’m just really glad that you’re back. It gets so boring without you here.” He makes a comedic face to you that is so ridiculous that you laugh out loud.

You quickly stop yourself; you have to work on detaching yourself from John. Why is it so hard?

“Hey Veronica, we have a new item that came out while you were recovering.” John pulls out a box from under the counter. He beckons you closer, and as you obey he pulls out a fake bouquet of flowers. “For the lady,” he hands them to you, “in hope that you are never harmed again.” He holds back a laugh as you accept the flowers. You know that there has to be some lame gag in these flo-

Water just squirted out of the flowers and all over you face.

“Ha-ha-ha! I knew that you would fall for it Veronica!” You swear, sometimes John acts like an eight year old. He would be rolling around on the floor if there was room.

“Very funny John.” He composes himself to hand you a towel from under the counter, and you wipe the water from your face. You remain sarcastic as ever “Yes it is completely ha-ha.” John looks at you a little heartbroken.

“Was it really not that funny? I wanted to make you laugh as soon as you got back. I hoped that this was going to be a new start or something for us.”

You quickly create a fake smile across your face, “No John it is funny. See!” You point out your grin. You still continue to hate lying to John. “Now what do mean about a new start?”

John became a little embarrassed, “Oh, um well I was think that we well um.” He swallows whatever saliva he conjured up during that little sentence and starts again. “Okay how about this? On your first day back after work you come with me to have a home cooked meal courtesy of myself.” You don’t know what to say. “I uh thought that would be a nice change from all the hospital food. And I know that you don’t cook at your house, and it would be nice for you to have a real meal that doesn’t require instant heating up.”

He looks at you so desperately that you have no other choice. “Alright John, I’ll eat your dinner. You 8etter 8e a good cook.” You wink at him and he grins, but on the inside you feel defeated. You’ve completely failed at leaving him forever and now you’re going to his house. You don’t understand how John can change you so much so fast.

Your day passes by shortly with little activity from customers or from John. You spend a lot of the day avoiding him. It turns out not very hard since he spent a lot of time on the second floor storage area; which you assume is what it is. You don’t know, you don’t go up there. When he does confront you about avoiding him you only respond with, “I want to make up allllllll the work that I’ve missed. 8esides, we’ll have plenty of time to talk afterwards.” You’re lucky he believes you because you don’t know how much more lying you can take.

After the work day is out, and John and you have both cleaned up the store for tomorrow, there is nothing you can do to avoid him. You head for the door exiting the store, “Hey Veronica where are you going?”

You look back at John confused, “What do you mean Pupa? 8n’t we going to your house?”

He lightly laughs at you, “I live on the store’s second floor silly.”

“What? I never knew that. I thought that the second floor was just for storage.” He laughs again, “You leave the store so quickly that you never see me leave.” Now that you think about it, it is true. “I have a whole mini apartment up there.” He gestures you to come over and you comply.

You have to admit that John has serious designer flaws based on where he lives. It’s small and cheap looking, nothing like the mansion you grew up in. Actually now that you think about it, you like it. It’s cozy and quaint. There’s also a lot of blue. You both really like the color blue.

“Now,” John starts, “I’ve been working on the lasagna on my breaks, so it should be done in ten minutes. Why don’t we work on setting the table and making the salad?”

You smirk a little, “I was wondering where you kept sneaking off to. But lasagna sounds great.” You spend the next ten minutes setting the table and making the salad with John. During the entire ten minutes you keep trying to convince yourself to tell John goodbye, but you just can’t.

When dinner comes around, you and John make small talk, and you find out that John is an excellent cook. Your small talk is actually very awkward because you are still trying to separate yourself from John, and you are doing horrible at it.

John senses how spaced out you are at the end of dinner and suggests a change in activity. “Why don’t we watch a movie?”

“Oh,” you say coming out of your distant mind, “sure that sounds great.”

He shows you into his small entertainment room and rushes to his movie pile, “Hmm what to watch, what to watch?”

You walk around examining the room wanting it to be more interesting than John’s butt which keeps wiggling in your direction. NO! No you are not thinking about this right now. Not at all.

You quickly seat yourself in his loveseat couch; no you mean his couch for two people. Ah screw it already. You spend some time watching your hands.

“Oooooooo, hey Veronica how about this movie?” He shows you a VCR movie of Patton.

“Wow John, I didn’t know you had this movie! I a8solutly love this movie!!!!!!!!” You really do. “In fact I love any movie involving Francis Ford Coppola. He did a great job writing this.”

“Really? I do too! I didn’t think that there was someone who enjoys his work as much as me.” You both smile for a second for your love of Francis Ford Coppola films. Of course you and John watch the movie, and it’s amazing as usual. However at the end of the film you knew that you had to talk to John.

“John? I need to ask you something.”

He turns his head away from the credits, “Oh?”

You wanted to tell John that you couldn’t see each other ever again. That there could be no future involving both of you. But all you could ask is “Can this 8e a d8? Or if not, then can we go on a d8?”

John only stares at you in disbelief.

You want to stop yourself but you can’t, “I mean I l8ke y8u or something so why n8t? It’s 8kay if you d8n’t w8nt t8. Wh8tever.”

“Veronica.”

“I mean why sh8uld we even d8, it’s a stupid idea anyway.”

“Veronica.”

“You know what, forget a8out it. It is a st8pid id8a-“ John throws his hand quickly over your mouth.

“I would like to go out on a date with you Veronica Sergent.”

You stare at John completely stunned. You really hope that he’s going to do something quickly to wake you out of this trance.

Be John:

You really like being John right now.

You recognize that this 8eautiful woman is speechless right now. Guess you need to wake her up.

You move your hands from over her mouth and move them to hold her face. She watches you as you move closer and closer.

You then do something that you’ve wanted to do for a long time.

You kiss the girl.

Chapter Text

Be the Troll again.

You were always the troll. You were always the same troll watching the same strange human grow up.

Like it was a shitty movie.

Troll: Review the movie.

Not much to say about the movie. It’s still going on in fact! But what you’ve seen so far isn’t very impressive. It is a cliché flushed movie that you’ve seen on Alternia countless times before. The old pale friends turn deep red through traumatic experiences. Been done before moron who wrote this story!

The only difference is that these are humans and not trolls.

This movie better fucking improve or you are destroying the screen with whatever you can find.

Troll: Continue to watch the screen.

You would if this shitty screen would proceed. You swear you could go spades for it.

Screen: Continue to tell this stupid flush story already.

You comply.

Troll: Watch.

Well what else are you going to do?

The screen flashes to outside a one-story structure. Bells are ringing in its top tower and people in fancy ass clothes are hurrying in.

The screen flashes again to what you assume is the inside of the structure, you assume because there are fancy ass clothes-wearing shit-faces inside. These assholes are all sitting in aisles waiting for something to happen.

You finally notice that the male human that you’ve been watching is standing up front sweating through his own fancy ass clothes.

Finally everyone in the room stops moving around and turns to the back of the room to see . . . some bitch in white? Her entire body is covered in white. You can’t even see what she looks like.

She’s probably really ugly. Or the she is a he.

What the fuck is this? Why is everyone paying so much attention to her?

The White Bitch walks across the room to the male human, “man” and stands right next to him. He smiles at the White Bitch and they hold hands. A man in between the two talks to them.

You think you understand what’s going on. Through your vast knowledge of human culture, you understand this tradition of “marriage.” From what you can comprehend, it’s basically the humans’ idiotic idea of pronouncing their flushed feeling for each other through an expensive celebration.

It’s stupid and pointless.

But you understand the process nonetheless.

You watch as words are exchange between the trio. You’re sure that it’s heartwarming or some shit, but you don’t really care about human romance. It’s so boring and simple compared to troll romance.

The trio eventually stops talking, and the “man” lifts up the White Bitches’ face coverage.

Why it’s none other than the female human that’s been courting the “man” whose life you’ve been watching.

What a big fucking surprise.

OH! What do you know; they’re going to kiss right in front of- Wait that’s really gross. You didn’t even like it before when they kiss. Trolls are so much better at kissing.

This is like a fact.

Gog why doesn’t this screen change out of this shit?

Screen: Change out of this shit.

Yup.

Troll: Keep watching this new boat load of shit.

Wow this is a recipe for disaster.

The screen has now changed to a room in some sort of flushed theme. Red hearts everywhere. Even the humans’ sleeping unit is red heart shaped.

The door bust open and in comes the WONDERFUL flushed couple still in their stupid fancy clothes.

The “man” is giggling his ass off while the “woman” is taking their bags deeper into the room. She returns trying to calm down her matespit.

The closes she gets him is to silently smiling.

She pulls him over to the edge of the heart bed and gives him a passionate kiss. GAG!

Then the “woman” begins to . . . why is she taking off his clothes? Why is he taking off hers? WHY ARE THEY BOTH NAKED?

OH NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! WHAT ARE THEY EVEN DOING? THIS IS NOT NATURAL! EWWW EWWWW EWWWWWWW! THIS IS SO DISGUSTING! WHY DON’T THEY JUST PULL OUT A FUCKING BUCKET ALREADY? STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! FUCK! JKFDLSMFDKOAJPDFSKWMSEIOAGFJJSDFSJKLDFJKSDFJA!!!!!!

WHO WOULD EVEN WANT TO WATCH THIS HORROR?

Troll: Hurry! Pound on the keyboard until the screen changes.

You would but you cannot move or even turn your head away from the horrible screen. It’s like watching hundreds of grubs being culled all at once with no hope of survival.

You swear this screen hates you.

Screen: Show some God-damn mercy already!

Heh sure, maybe after five more minutes of this.

Troll: Endure this.

Sure, maybe after I GORGE OUT MY OWN EYEBALLS!

Reader: Uh . . . Let’s travel five minutes in time.

I can’t believe the fourth wall is being broken for this shit.

Screen: Change the screen now after the five minutes are up.

Awww, can’t we stay on this for a little while longer?

Everyone: NO.

Troll: Now that the horror is over go back to the promise peaceful screen.

You couldn’t tear your eyes away from it for one second. You will always have this scar.

But the screen has changed to a different room.

Unlike the one before, this room seems . . . sterile. It’s weird though because there are instruments of torture around that look like they are for poking and prodding.

What are even weirder are the pictures of wigglers on the wall everywhere. There are even some pictures that point out the anatomy of the human wigglers. Or what they are correctly called, “babies.”

The AMAZING couple of the year are in the room along with some other old “man” who is in a lab coat. The “woman” is sitting on a cushioned table? And the man is standing right beside her.

The couple is looking glum.

The old “man” is trying to say something; this screen does not come with audible, but you can tell that the couple is not listening. It’s not long until the “man” starts crying and the “woman” follows with him. They both try to comfort one another, but the effect does little to the outcome. It tightens your chest a little even though you slightly hate these humans.

You actually want to watch more, but the screen changes the setting again.

You are witnessing a scene from above on a structure larger than the previous one. You see a human play ground with human wigglers of all shapes, ages, colors whatever running around. There are a few adult humans disciplining them.

You see coming from the front door the two human matesprits that you’ve been watching leave the . . . hive? In the “woman’s” arms she is holding a wiggler of their own. The wiggler couldn’t be more than half a sweep old. The “man” put away some documents and coddled the wiggler.

You believe that you have just witness the beginning assembly of a human group called “family”.

Chapter Text

Troll: Continue to watch.

Not like you plan on stopping or anything.

The screen has changed yet again time further in the timeline, but not that long. You can tell because you have not stopped watching the “family.” The male wiggler has aged to a sweep from what you can tell.

The weak Earth sun is high in the sky and the “family” is traveling in a large land traveling machine, or a “bus.” Gog you are so smart in Earth Human Studies. The “man,” “woman,” and the wiggler are all traveling together with some other male human who’s reading some stupid paper with meteors on it. The strange male tries to get the matesprits attention, but they are too absorbed in their wiggler to pay much attention to the loner male. He leaves his seat to get their attention. He seems slightly annoyed, but the other male human says something that makes the female laugh and the other man calm down.

The strange man then points to an upcoming sign from outside the bus that says “Welcome to the State of New York.” The couple grabs the wiggler and the entire “family” is grinning eagerly for their trip to be over.

The screen fades out and comes back into focus with a different scene. It’s dark now and you see the female matesprit waiting outside a large structure with her wiggler and the strange “man”. She is playing with the puny wiggler while the strange human writes down plans in a small book.

Suddenly the male matesprit bursts out the door and gives the female a quick kiss. They hurry back to their “bus” without any delay.

You see why soon enough when a crowd of humans comes rushing over to the small group. They’re waving their books, pens, and a few with some cruddy gag toys all the way to the couple with their excited and eager faces. The strange “man” urges the “family” faster into the “bus.”

They all make it into the bus; give themselves time to take the air back into their lungs. The “bus” takes them to a different part of the area and drops them off. Only the couple and their wiggler get off.

The couple walks around with the wiggler in between them holding both of their hands. The area is surprisingly empty, but you know humans aren’t nocturnal. They stop every now and again to look through windows and observe the merchandise in the dark .

They eventually come up to a big red structure that reminds you of the slave work areas on Alternia. There’s a symbol on the top of a pole next to the structure that also reminds you of the Empress’s trident symbol. You feel a little colder inside with that thought in your head.

And it seems the “man” feels the same way. He looks at the structure with so much hatred it scares you a little because you are used to his cheerier nature. His matesprit seems to agree with you because she tries to calm him down. It doesn’t seem to work until she holds the wiggler up to the “man’s” face, and the “man” lightens up immediately.

The “man” carries the wiggler on top of his shoulders and runs fast and far. The “woman” stays behind next to the structure and watches the one she’s flushed for carry their wiggler around.

It’s kind of cute; the wiggler spreads his arms out like he’s flying. Silly wiggler, neither you nor your guardian can fly. Never will, not now, not ever.

But then screen changes to a different angle and you wish you could talk to the humans. More than ever, you wish you could warn them. You try to send them a message with the keyboard that’s connected with the screen, but no one responds. You desperately try to contact them anyways by yelling, but they don’t hear you. All you can do is watch.

Watching.

Watching the “female.”

Watching the “female” watching her “family.”

Watching as the entire “family” has no idea of the danger heading quickly towards them.

Watching them as a meteor heads fast to the female. And no one notices that it’s coming.

You think, you just think that right before it hit, the “man” turned around, noticed the meteor and tried to warn his “matesprit. But it was too late then. The meteor smashed directly into the large red structure, and debris fell on top of the “female.” The whole building is destroyed and a life is lost.

The “man” runs straight to his dead “matesprit” he carefully places the wiggler down next to him as he cries next to his lost flushed one. You see him hold her and brush the hair away from her face. There is a large red gash on the forehead, and she makes no movement. The “man” cries and holds her as close to him as possible.

The “bus” pulls up soon, and the strange male rushes out. The wiggler has started to cry, so the stranger picks him up first. All three of them are crying over the dead female, but the “man” that you’ve watched grow his relationship with her is crying the hardest.

A different land traveling machine with flashing red light comes up and two people come out. They check the group and one leaves and brings back a long black bag. The crying “man” yells at them to stop and verbally fights them from what you can tell. Screen still doesn’t have sound.

The two people from the flashing traveling machine consent and bring out a movable . . . “bed”? They load the “woman” up onto the “bed” and bring her into the machine. The “man” follows shortly after them into the vehicle, and the wiggler and the strange “man” go into the “bus” and follow the flashing traveling machine.

You know that the “man” wants to save his matesprit, but you also know that there is no hope.

The screen changes again to the inside of a different room. The “man” is sitting next to his dead matesprit crying over her body. The strange man comes in and comforts the “man.”

The screen changes back to the meter site. People are gathering around the destruction; some are even searching inside the debris.
One male human comes out carrying something inside his arms. He can’t seem to comprehend what he has found in the middle of the debris. What you assume to be his superior doesn’t believe him either until he shows what he found.

He’s covered what he’s found in a blanket. The male human shifts to reveal a little wiggler. A little, blond, female human wiggler.

Chapter Text

Troll: Reflect on everything you’ve just seen.

You quite frankly do not know what to say. You thought this was just some flushed movie about two humans and how they live together. But without the female, you don’t know anymore.

Was this entire show pointless? Is this just trying to tell you that humans can’t hold on to happiness for long? With all of knowledge on humans, you just don’t know anymore.

And the screen doesn’t seem to want to show you anything anymore.

Troll: Leave the screen.

You start to but the screen changes again, like it wants to keep you there.

The screen has changed to the store with the same “man” watching behind his counter. His faced is glazed over as he watches the customers come and go.

Time passes but stays on the “man.” He continues to age while the years pass by him, and time moves on. He seems to heal after losing his matesprit over time, but he can never completely recover. He continues to stay behind the same counter where he met his love, aging the entire time.

You think you can tell that he misses her the entire time of his aging, and he only wishes that they could’ve aged together.

Finally time has settled on to a point on the timeline where the “man” is very elderly and is still watching the store behind the same also old counter. A different “man” comes up to the old one and places his hand on the old one’s shoulder as if to say, “It’s okay.” The old “man” looks up at the young “man” with adoration that you’ve only seen him give to the wiggler.

It then occurs to you that the wiggler has grown up along with the “man.” The wiggler is now a “man.” He makes the old “man” leave the counter and walk around the building. The young “man” takes over the counter, but the screen follows the old “man.”

The old “man” carefully walks over to the back of the store where a memorial is set. A blue jar is set center on the table with a picture of a young “woman” on it. You recognize the “woman” as the female who was matesprits with the old “man” long ago. The old “man” stares at the picture for a long time, and then the screen changes again to
the young “man.”

The young male abandons his post to go outside of the building. Outside he greets a young blond woman and her wiggler. He converses with her and she listens interested. You think that you would have begun to watch a flushed relationship form again, if the screen didn’t change to high in the sky outside of the building. There you see the same horrifying scene that you saw before.

A meteor.

However, this meteor doesn’t give you the same fright as before; in fact, you sense that the meteor has life with it, but you don’t entirely know why. The meteor crashes destroying the building with a story and everything in it. The “woman” has surprisingly disappeared from the scene and the “man” runs straight to the debris with desperate tears running down his face. Through the ruble he finds the old “man” dead as can be, yet you yourself feel no sadness about this death. The “man” cries over the dead body, and you see near the old man shatters of blue pottery and ashes that are blown away with the wind, and take any evidence of that strange “woman” with them.

You think that the “man” would have kept on crying longer if a little wiggler didn’t cry out. The “man” notices the little wiggler that coos towards him. The “man” sniffs away his tears and gingerly picks up the wiggler. He brushes her hair away, and that somehow brings a smile to his face. When the little wiggler is picked up you can see its face, it reminds you a lot like the old “man” when he was a young “boy.” The wiggler seems comforted by the “man” and he feels the same. You don’t know why, but you have concluded that these two belong together. And that’s why you weren’t scared when the meteor came this time.

It was meant to happen, and it was the right time.

Screen: Change one last time.

Troll: Watch.

The screen changes to a section in time years later when the new wiggler is a female adolescent full of life.

She looks straight at the screen to you, and for a second she believes that she sees someone watching right back at her. But it’s comforting to her.

You understand now. You understand completely. While the boy was interesting, he’s not unique in this universe. Maybe in some other universe he shows importance, but not here. You’ve sense for some time that he belongs somewhere else. But his time to shine is over. His story here was meant to be a normal one where he could live and grow up with his matesprit. It didn’t turn out the way it was suppose to, but that was how it was supposed to happen.

This was his chance to live a life he couldn’t get from wherever he was living before, but it’s over now. His story is over.

However, the “girl’s” is just beginning.

Troll: HEY YOU THERE. GIRL.