Archive of Our Own ^beta

Being isolated from other objects for thousands of years doesn’t give you good social skills, the Floor knew that for sure. He really didn’t get what he was doing wrong, but for some reason, it seemed no one else really was too fond of him. He didn’t know why he cared so much about the other object’s opinions and friendship or whatever, he had never cared about these things before he met other people, but he guessed he was just stuck with it. 

He remembers on one of the first days when he teleported to the beach, where Fan and Test Tube happened to be. He knew they were talking about something semi-important, but he was sure they wouldn’t mind him hearing it as well! After all, they seemed to be on good terms! And then:

“Floory, this is a private conversation.” Fan said, in that annoyed tone he seemed to give everyone besides for a select few (namely Test Tube and Paintbrush).

“Oh, well I’ll just be right here then!” He responded, not exactly sure what he was supposed to say. Fan didn’t mean that he should leave… right? Fan knew that the Floor would never tell anyone what he heard, why was he so worried? He watched as Fan and Test Tube slowly inched away from him and questioned why. Was it because they didn’t trust him? What was it?

When the Floor lost that first challenge for the Thinkers, he didn’t get why they wanted to vote him off! He overheard that first meeting they had and he just didn’t get it. He thought he was well liked by everyone! He didn’t know that anyone minded his teleportation. How was he supposed to know that? No one ever told him!

He really didn’t know how to comprehend that meeting and the things the others said about him. What did it mean? Did his team hate him? Was he overthinking it? Underthinking it? Was anything anyone had ever said to him a lie? Why did no one tell him anything?!

Thankfully, OJ was the one who left, and it seemed everything was back to normal. His team didn’t comment on his “snooping” and spontaneous teleportation to his face, so maybe they never even cared about it. He was sure it was just the heat of the moment that made them say those things at the meeting, and that since nobody brought anything about the teleportation up to him now, he was sure nobody truly minded.

And he was never at risk after that, even after the teams rearranged, so he must have been liked by the others now! Maybe they stopped hating him, or better yet, had never hated him in the first place! Clover and Goo were eliminated, with not a single mention of the Floor! He was safe! Everyone must have loved him now! He could do anything, he could win the game! 

The merge came but he was sure he’d be okay. He had an alliance with a lot of other people, he could never be voted out! Unless somebody switched on them… but that wouldn’t happen. Everyone said they were loyal to the New Old Thinkers, and he trusted everyone on there! No one had any reason to lie, after all, with this alliance they were headed straight to victory! And even if someone did betray the alliance, they wouldn’t target him. He wasn’t a threat at all, and he was well-liked by everybody, he was sure.

But it happened. He was betrayed, and he was voted out. But on the bright side, he got to stay on the island as MePhone’s new assistant, he just didn’t have the opportunity to win a prize anymore. Which was honestly fine for him, he had no use for the prize anyways. He was stuck on this island forever, and didn’t even have any hands to carry any money with. Maybe it was better for him, now he no longer had the stress of contests and alliances in his mind. Now all that was left in his mind was… did everyone hate him? 

There was no reason Silver Spoon would have turned on their alliance to vote the Floor unless he hated him. There was no reason the other contestants would have chased him around for an entire episode, trying to strip him away from his essence, from his home, unless they hated him. Hell, MePhone definitely hated him too! Otherwise, why would he make an entire challenge about removing him from the game?

He wished he could ask someone about this, to hear them confirm or deny whether they hated him. But would they just look at him like an idiot? Would they not understand that the Floor didn’t know about this stuff, that this was his first time ever speaking to other objects? He didn’t get how everyone understood these social cues, how could he? He wished he could speak to Purple Candle, or hell, even MePhone about this, but would they just laugh at him for being underdeveloped? For the first time since the game begun, he wished he could go back to his life before the game, when it was just him and his island.

He shook his (metaphorical) head and snapped out of his thoughts. If he wanted MePhone to like him again, he needed to be the best assistant possible. It didn’t help that sometimes he couldn’t understand half of what MePhone said (why couldn’t he speak more literally?), so he needed to try extra hard. So, he told himself, he would try to be the best assistant ever. He would throw himself into his work, needing MePhone and the others to no longer hate him. 

A voting ceremony had just concluded and he could faintly hear the sound of something coming towards him. He prepared himself to teleport out of the way and… Oh. It was just Cabby.

“Hey, Cabby,” He said in the most likable voice he could muster, “Whatcha’ need?”

“Oh I don’t need anything, don’t worry.” She reassured him in that sweet voice of hers, the one that was so easy to like (unlike him apparently). “I was more wondering about you?”

And that shocked the Floor. What was there to worry about him? He had no physical body, nothing to worry about, and mental stuff was all in his head, no one else could see it! “I don’t know what you’re talking about mate.” He tried to tell her, “I really don’t know what you could be worrying about.”

“Well it’s just, and forgive me if I’m wrong, you seem very withdrawn lately. You haven’t been exactly talking to us, you’ve really just been working.”

“Oh that’s nothing to worry about.” He smiled at her, praying this was how normal conversation went, “I’m just trying to be liked by y’all again!”

“And… Pardon me for asking, but when did we stop liking you?”

“Oh, when I was eliminated! Obviously, there’d be no reason to vote me out if you didn’t dislike me!”

Cabby made a face at that, and reached into her cabinet, pulling out a file. She shuffled through it until she found the paper she was looking for, and then looked directly at him. “Floory, have you ever… talked to other objects before this show?”

That wasn’t an expected question. “No, why’d you ask? I thought it was kinda obvious, I mean I have been stuck on this island for thousands of years, and no one ever bothers to come here.”

“Oh dear,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head. “I think you have a lot to catch up on.”

“Is that bad?” He hesitantly asked, “Is that why you all dislike me?”

“No it’s not bad, you just have some stuff you need to learn. I think I need to tell the others to handle you a lot differently.” Then she smiled at him, “And for the record, none of us dislike you. I think you’re pretty neat. And you make for an interesting file.”

“Oh.” He stayed there in silence for a couple seconds. “Hooray!”