Work Text:
Seam travelled down the docks of Waterfall, mind set on going to the dump that lay further down the cavern where all of their kind were stuck in. Their closest companion, Jevil, had asked them to travel down to the dump, where old objects lay to rot from both the surface and the monsters who lived under the ground, to play a game with their two other friends, Tenna and Spamton, an old entertainer and a mailman respectively.
Oh, was Jevil full of exultation at the mere thought of playing with all his friends. Despite the Seam’s now apparent languidness after being shown the awful truth by that…man? Ah, they still weren’t quite sure what it was, even after all this time had passed that only the mage was aware of, but that didn’t matter right now. What did matter right now was that Jevil’s sheer joy of even the thought of playing with them all was enough to pull Seam out of their languidness, even just a little bit. What was the harm of some fun, even if nothing truly mattered? Might as well do something other than the tempting thought of rotting away until they turned to dust.
The cat soon finished their walk across the docks and entered the part of the cavern where most of the waterfalls were, causing rain-like weather to form. Having lived here for so long, Seam simply pulled their light tawny raincoat’s hood over their head, their cat-like ears drooping down to fit in the hood. While the mage could have merely grabbed an umbrella nearby that was left out for the residents of this rainy area, they had just decided to wear a raincoat instead; it just made things easier.
The mage tried to drown out their thoughts with the pitter-patter of the rain, but alas, it was not that easy; their mind always went back to what was revealed to them from the Man if nothing else was going on. What they now remembered was that no one else but they and that strange yellow flower could, what they were unfortunately privy to now.
They clutched their right sleeve tightly, their claws poking out and digging into the rubbery coat, threatening to tear the sleeve and dig into their furry purple arm. What would that fallen human do this time? Each time they went back to this day, the human seemed to grow more and more violent, slaughtering more and more of Seam’s kind for no reason other than what they could guess was curiosity.
After all, if they could return to this day whenever they wanted to, why not see all the possibilities? No matter how cruel their actions needed to be to get these new results.
How long till they encountered Tenna and Seam? How long till the human killed them?
How long till Seam encountered the human? Till they finally had a taste of death before they went back to today.
How long till they encountered their dear jester? How long till the human killed him?
If the human killed their dearest companion, what would they do? Nothing mattered; the human always brought them back to this day, so why would it matter if they killed the Jester?
Would the mage finally be compelled to bring retribution to the fallen human for what they’ve done? Even if they knew the fallen one always came back from death, rewinding time a bit before they had been killed? Just to make them feel pain?
Who knew. The thought was tempting, though.
Seam exhaled a weary sigh. They had been thinking of that for a while now, for the last few resets at least. It was such a tempting thought; the only reason they had not done it yet was that the human was a child, no older than twelve. A violent child, an inquisitive one, yet still a child.
Were human children just like this, though, so violent?
Doesn’t matter anymore, as while Seam was absorbed in their thoughts, they were now nearing the dump, where Tenna and Spamton lived, and where Jevil was now. The humidity had picked up considerably as their feet dipped into the shallow water that filled the dump, wetting the fur on said feet and making their fur coat frizz up more. They should have worn their rain boots. Their mind was just so uncharacteristically vacant this morning after the last reset, the underground seemingly vacant right before whatever the human does to make them all go back to this day.
Tenna and Spamton's house was made in the dump, or more accurately, made out of it. The two had used the junk surrounding here to form a sort of shelter that they also used as a shop at times, run mainly by Tenna as Spamton went out trying to deliver whatever ‘mail’ they had, which more often than not involved some sort of scam, while Tenna had a few moblity issues due to his age and rust.
The two weren’t exactly the wealthiest people in the Underground, to put it the least.
Luckily, there was a sign in front of their humble house that differentiated them from the other trash heaps around here, titled ‘Lost & Pawn’. That’s all the Mage had to look for to find where Jevil, Tenna, and Spamton were.
The rain had stopped a while ago, yet Seam kept their hood up. It wasn’t unusual for water to still drip from the cavern's ceiling, and the mage didn’t feel up to getting even more wet right now, especially with their orange eyepatch protecting the area where they had lost their right eye some time ago.
That left only the sound of Seam moving through the dump, water sloshing as they walked through the flooded area. It was rather dim where they lived, so they were used to it, having a keen eye for figures in the dark.
So, when the mage heard rustling in the nearby trash dumps that turned into light steps in the water, they already knew who it was. Especially so when they looked over their shoulder slightly and saw a pair of eyes behind them, with glowing white pupils.
Seam couldn’t help but chuckle to themself and turned their head forward, playing along. Oh, was it fun to play the fool at times, just like their dear friend.
After a few more yards, they heard familiar chuckles behind them as the steps quickened, before they heard a loud splash as the figure leaped.
Seam swiftly spun around and grabbed their impetuous imp friend, Jevil. They wrapped him in a tight hug, easily lifting their smaller friend off the ground as the jester began to loudly laugh.
“UHE-HEE-HEE! OH, FOR IF IT ISN’T MY BELOVED!” Jevil loudly proclaimed to Seam, a large, sharp, toothy smile on his face, “FOR YOU HAVE FINALLY, FINALLY ARRIVED!”
Their jester friend wore a cyan and black harlequin jester horned hat that seemed too big for him as it reached down to his back, yet perfectly fit his rather large horns with some extra room to spare. There were black clubs on the cyan half of his hat and cyan spades on the black half, with the ends of his hat having a yellow heart and diamond dangling on the ends. To match his hat was a black shawl around his neck, which was slightly covered by his frilled collar, which was colored with cyan and royal blue sections. He fittingly wore a royal blue and cyan one, a poncho-like material jumper, with each color split in half into its section, with black buttons, along with black gloves on his hands. It was the usual outfit he wore when he had a performance in this area of the underground. The only thing that stood out besides the Jevil’s pale red skin was the bright yellow rainboots, but they were likely hastily grabbed earlier in the day to run down here.
A smile crept on the Seam’s face, much smaller than their friend’s, “Hee hee…I suppose, though we aren’t quite there yet, you imp.” They told him, lessening their grip on him but not letting him go or dropping him in the water.
Jevil leaned back, finally able to look at their cat friend’s face, which was obscured slightly by their hood, “HMMMM, I SUPPOSE,” He answered, though his smile noticeably faded as he glanced over to the side, “THOUGH, I MUST ASK, MY FRIEND, ARE YOU OKAY? YOU LOOK SHAKEN, SHAKEN.”
Ah, right, it had only been a day since they met the Man to others, not however many days have passed since he actually met him. Plus, the last one was…not great. It was a massacre until the human spared a monster or two in this area of the underground, with the Mage and Jester having helped evacuate others away from their wrath. Evacuations were never fun.
Though Jevil didn’t need to worry about that, he didn’t deserve to, so Seam lied despite the bitter taste it left in their mouth, “Oh, nothing too serious, just a bad dream, you know how it is.”
The jester frowned, his sharp teeth showing, the opposite of his endearing smile moments prior, “ARE YOU SURE? YOU LOOKED UPSET BEFORE WE DEPARTED LAST NIGHT AFTER YOU GOT LOST FOR SOME TIME.” He asked, his head tilted slightly as he faced Seam.
They didn’t respond, unsure of what to say. Jevil must know that they weren’t being entirely truthful but was letting them have the option of not telling. “...Don’t worry about an old fool like me, I just dream of some…strange things.” Once more with that bitter taste that made Seam frown.
He did not move for a second, their face remaining the same, before he stretched up and pulled down the mage’s hood, burying his face in the scruff of Seam's fluffy neck.
“DO YOU PERHAPS WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT LATER?” The Jester offered as quietly as they could, his voice muffled by their fur.
Their ears, now uncovered from their hood, perked up as the Mage tightly clutched onto his dearest friend’s back. They tried to stifle their nerves, but it was of little to no use.
Why not tell him? The Mage had told the Jester before, yet the Jester never could remember after the human decided to rewind everything because nothing mattered in the end.
“... Perhaps,” Was all they could choke out, though.
They both stayed there for a second, the only noise being water dripping nearby. Soon, though, Jevil pushed back lightly, and Seam placed their friend into the water, with the jester’s much shorter stature causing some of the water to spill into their rainboots.
Their dearest friend faced up to them and flashed them another wide grin before snatching their paw and began leading Seam to their other friends, “NOW, NOW, IT’S BEST WE DON’T KEEP CATHODE AND MR. SPAM MAIL MUCH LONGER!”
The mage couldn’t help but chuckle, “Well, I suppose you’re right, but did you not stop by them first before you decided to play a little surprise?” They asked him, having sped up to stand side by side with their friend.
“UHEE-HEE-HEE” Jevil laughed out, sticking out his blacked forked tongue as he did so, “WHY, WHERE’S THE FUN IN THAT? I THOUGHT IT BE BETTER TO WAIT FOR YOU FIRST, GIVE THEM ALL A SURPRISE, SURPRISE!”
“Would you like me to help with your surprise?”
The jester let go of their paw and made a few quick steps forward, turning around and walking backwards, “THAT WAS THE PLAN!” He responded, bowing slightly before slowing down. Jevil’s eyes were staring right at them as his smile faltered for a second. Seam already knew what the next question would be; it had been asked by him so many times to them, even before the mage became cursed with their new knowledge, “ALSO, WOULD YOU, MAYHAPSE, JOIN ME FOR MY NEXT PERFORMANCE AS WELL?”
It was charming, really, whenever the Jester asked this question. The tips of his ears always turned a shade or two darker as if he was embarrassed to ask the question, though in the earlier days of their friendship, before the jester was truly, well, a jester, they couldn’t recall that happening. Seam always said yes, though, except maybe one or two times for a reason they couldn’t remember. Angel above, if Jevil just asked if they wanted to be performance partners for his shows, Seam would say yes in a heartbeat.
So, Seam gave a short nod, “Of course. Where will it be this time?” Despite time seemingly looping, this was one of the inconsistent things about where the show for later today would be, and Seam could never figure out why. It was always out of the way from where the human would be, either because they had already left that area or simply didn’t go that way on their adventure.
Their question was unanswered, though, as Jevil began spinning around, water splashing around, hitting the lower half of the Mage’s raincoat, “AH HA! OH, HOW WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL!” The jester exclaimed, having stopped spinning and instead staying near his mage friend’s side with his dark red, nearly black, J-shaped tail wagging behind him, with Seam having stopped in place at Jevil’s joyful outburst, “I SHALL SAY, THIS SHOW WILL BE DIFFERENT, BUT SO MUCH FUN!”
The last one was new. Seam wondered briefly what had caused this new variation in a relatively consistent pattern, but it was irrelevant and didn’t matter. “Oh, how so?”
Giddy laughter bubbled out of Jevil, “I WAS THINKING, PERHAPS INSTEAD OF OUR USUAL REHEARSED PERFORMANCE, WE SPAR LIKE WE DO FOR FUN!” He suggested, “IT’LL BE SUCH FUN CHAOS, CHAOS!”
That did sound like fun, but Seam was hesitant to agree, biting down on the inside of their mouth before glancing away for a moment, “Not that it’s not fun to fight you, my friend, I’d love to, but are you sure our audience would enjoy that? I’ve been told that our sparring can get quiet…” The mage had to keep their hand from going up to their orange eyepatch covering where their missing eye was, “Violent.”
Jevil began walking once more, with Seam a step or two behind, “I SUPPOSE SO, BUT IS THAT NOT THE FUN OF IT?” The jester wondered for a moment, looking up at the ceiling of the cavern with surprisingly thoughtful eyes, “I THINK OUR BATTLING AND SPARRING IS QUITE THE SIGHT, ESPECIALLY WHEN OUR MAGIC COLLIDES AND EXPLODES INTO A FLURRY OF DAZZLING DUST!”
Seam gave a small chuckle, feeling a tad bit warmer from the comment. If Jevil really wanted to spar for a show, then audience be damned, they didn’t matter enough for Seam to put up more of a protest, “Well, alright then, but where and when is this show going to be? I need to know to attend.”
“OH HO, JUST AS PUNCTILIOUS AS ALWAYS!” The jester teased, returning his attention to the mage, “I WAS THINKING THE CAPITAL AT AROUND-”
However, Jevil shut himself up the moment he heard two loud voices nearby, along with splashing footsteps heading in their direction, recognition dawning on his face as he began to laugh to himself.
“WELL, IT SEEMS LIKE CATHODE HAS FOUND US FIRST, FIRST!” The jester then swiped Seam’s paw, leading him to hide behind one of the many piles of discarded junk, “IT’S TIME FOR SOME FUN, SOME CHAOS!”
So, the two monsters got situated on top of the large trash heap, climbing onto the top with relative ease from both of them, Seam clawing his way near the top and Jevil swiftly jumping up. They settled next to each other, the Jester sitting crisscrossed to where only his eyes were poking out and the Mage lying on their stomach due to their height. The cat knew that from where the two were, no one would see them unless they were closely paying attention to their surroundings.
In just mere moments, two monsters appeared in their view. One of those monsters was a short human-avian-like creature with pitch black feathers around his back and sides. However, the monster also had distinctly puppet-like features, such as his face being a white, porcelain-like material, and his mouth like a ventriloquist doll. Though it wasn’t seen right now, Seam knew that under the murky blue mailman uniform, there was more of that strange porcelain material around Spamton’s body, like an armor that couldn’t be taken off. Spamton had on his usual mailman hat with a mailbox flag attached to the side of it, along with his circular glasses, with cracked orange and yellow lens.
The short monster was walking by the side and talking to his much, much larger friend, Tenna. Tenna was a usually ginormous CRT-headed robot whose origins alluded to them all, even the rusty robot himself. He wore a large, somehow oversized, beat-up, red trench coat that was unbuttoned, revealing a torn-up up muddy white polo shirt with a torn yellow bowtie and scuffed black pants. His golden antennas were bent up, and his mossy green-tinted screen was cracked from the upper left corner to the bottom right one, as if it were cleaved by a blade, yet a cartoony smile could still be seen on it. The really strange thing about Tenna, besides his questionable origins, was that while he had two arms, it was clear he was meant to have four, with his left upper arm missing and his smaller bottom arm gone, leaving one large arm and one small one. He also had an RCA cable tail that split into three plugs at the end, truly a strange monster.
“I’m not sure if we can do that, little mailman, I’m pretty sure he has some sort of p̵r̵o̷p̵i̶e̸t̷a̸r̴y̶ ̸ on anything with his image.” Tenna told his friend, his words staticy at the end, carefully maneuvering through the flooded area as he used a large rusty metal rod held in his hand to balance better.
“DEAR [As seen on TV!]: COME ON! IT COULDN’T [Hurt in a car wreck?] IF WE TRIED! WHAT’S THE WORST [AI Advancements!] GOING TO DO TO US!? YOUR PAL, [#1 Rated Mailman 1997!]” Spamton replied, the water was only a few inches from reaching around his waist.
Really, even though the two of them said that their jobs were both being a mailman and a robot made to entertain, it was subterfuge to say that’s what they actually did. The two were honestly more so conmen if anything. After all, the way the two had met Jevil, then Seam later on, was because Spamton tried to pickpocket Jevil with the help of Tenna distracting him.
The Entertainer grumbled quietly, “I don’t know! No one in the whole underground has dared to use his IP!”
At this point, the Mage had decided to stop listening to Spamton and Tenna discuss whatever scheme they were planning, instead opting to focus on their dear jester companion, who was now shuffling around a deck of cards he must’ve been carrying.
Before Seam could question what he was doing, Jevil fanned out the entire deck of cards in front of them, gesturing it over to the mage for them to pick one.
So the mage did, they picked out a card and flipped it over to see what they had pulled, that being a seven of hearts. They showed the card to Jevil, knowing he was pulling some trick on either them or their two other friends.
“SAY, T-T-[$10.99 COUPON!], WHERE DO YOU THINK [Circus Coming to Town!] AND [50% off plushies!] ARE?”
The jester gave a quiet yet mischievous chuckle before spawning seven flying magic bullets that sparked slightly before quickly changing into heart shapes. He lifted his left hand to around the halfway point of his head and sent the heart bullets flying down towards the other two.
Of course, since they were Jevil’s friends and not enemies, he would obviously make sure they wouldn’t actually hit their friends.
One of the faster bullets hit right by Tenna’s left side, diving into the water with a powerful splash.
“AH!”
“[@#$%!]!”
The TV-headed monster jumped back as more of the bullets rained down, with him slipping and falling down onto his back into the trash-filled water, a gigantic splash resulting from it. Meanwhile, Spamton skirted backwards as he shielded his body with his arms from both the bullets, but the splash of water that had now drenched him completely.
Jevil was now covering his mouth as he tried to snuffle out his bubbling laughter, his eyes tearing up a bit.
Meanwhile, Seam glanced over and watched his closest friend's reaction, so joyful and carefree, before bursting out into a loud fit of laughter.
The puppet’s head snapped up, somehow turning beet red, “TO [Clowns Around Town]: THE [@#$!] WAS THAT FOR!? INFURIATINGLY, From: Spamton M. Spamton!”
“AHA!” The jester finally blurted out, howling out like crazy as he stood up, “OH, OH, IT WAS JUST TOO FUN! SUCH A SIMPLE TRICK TO SEND YOU ALL FALLING, FALLING!”
Tenna placed his upper hand on the rim of his old head casing,” Ugh…” He groaned out for a moment before glancing up and seeing Jevil and Seam standing up from the trash heap, and immediately began beaming, scurrying to get up as his antennas straightened out, “Oh! Well, if it isn’t my other two favorite s̴t̶a̵r̴s̷!” He called out to them, “Usually, you two are a bit more creative when it comes to your little stunts, but I admit, you got us good!”
“YEAH, AND HOW ABOUT YOU MEANCES GET [Fallen and can’t get up?] HERE!” The mailman angrily shouted out, shaking himself dry like a wet dog, “DO YOU [No!] HOW HARD IT IS TO STAY [New Drying Machine!] HERE ALREADY WITHOUT Y’ALLS [Crazy Stunts and More!]?”
Seam couldn’t help but smile at the sight, “Ha ha! Oh, just give us a moment, you old mailman!” The agme then leapt over some of the trash and began sliding down it, with their jester friend following right behind them.
“OLD?!?!?!”
Seam and Jevil soon landed, with the jester giving a playful wink to Spamton, and he moved over to nudge him, “UHE-HEE-HEE! OH, DO NOT GROW SUPERCILIOUS ON US NOW, MESSANGER! FOR YOU AGE JUST LIKE THE REST OF US, UNTIL WE ALL END UP AS DUST, YOU ARE NOT ABOVE IT!”
Tenna frowned at Jevil’s comment, “W-Well! We aren’t that old! If we were, we would have seen the sun at least once!”
Ah, the age-old wish for all monsters, to see the sun and moon. Very few were alive when monsterkind was sealed underground, having been lost to the war or simply weren’t born yet, the only few being the King and their history-loving shopkeeper acquaintance, Gerson.
Seam gave a small, wistful sigh, “Haa haa…if only.” They commented, “Not like we’ll ever be able to reach it, not like this.”
With just those words, the other three’s attention was diverted to them, confusion nipping at Spamton’s and Tenna’s face, but concern on Jevil’s.
“DEAR S-S[Cat Toys 25% Off!]: WHAT? WHADDAYA MEAN? THE [Head Honcho] ONLY NEEDS ONE MORE [HeartShapedObejct] AND WE’LL BE FREE! WITH JOY, SP-[Papers! Come Get Your Papers!]”
One more human SOUL, just one more. Yet no one could get it; monsters would never be free, for the human could not stay dead for long.
They bit their tongue to stop themself from saying that, knowing it brought them no good when they told Spamton that, just bouts of paranoia and borderline madness from him. Instead, they opted to say, “A human soul, and we’re already lucky to have six; I doubt the next one will be easy to get.”
Their dear Jjester glided over to their side, wrapping one of Seams arms in his own, “OH, BUT I KNOW OUR KING WILL GET THAT LAST SOUL, MY BELOVED!” The Jester told them with a stressed smile, “BUT FOR NOW, HOW ABOUT A GAME, GAME? SCREENS, YOU PICK!”
Tenna clasped their hands together, making the mailman’s eyes leave Seam and instead focus on the larger monster, “Now, I know war isn’t usually played with four people, but I believe it can be changed to do so, correct?
“Yes, though nothing really changes except the number of cards dealt out.” Seam responded, casting a look down at the imp’s arm. A rather sweet gesture from Jevil.
“Great, then let's get going! We got a g̴a̵m̵e̴ ̸ for tonight then, folks!” The Entertainer then took a sidestep to the left and gestured with jazz hands for Seam and Jevil to walk past him, “Now, may our lovely contestants please go and enter our shop? We’ll be there in just a jiffy!”
Jevil nodded, “OF COURSE, COURSE!”
And with that, the mage and jester were off on their own again, at least for a bit this time.
As the two walked over to the Spamton’s and Tenna’s shop, Jevil squeezed Seam’s arm tightly, earning their attention.
The jester was frowning, but not out of sadness; no, it was a focused one. He stared off in the distance, clearly lost in thought, before he spoke.
“WE’LL SEE THE SURFACE ONE DAY, I PROMISE.”
And Seam couldn’t help but smile softly at that. They have heard those words so many times from him, yet they knew they weren’t hollow. It was just that the Jevil didn’t know the true circumstances that they were all in, that no matter what they did, it didn’t matter, not one bit.
But Seam didn’t like seeing their friend so upset, yet this time, they didn’t; they couldn’t lie to him.
“I hope so.”
Hope, what a funny feeling. Seam would hold onto it, or at least try, just for their beloved jester.