The House and Everything in It, Ch. 22: A Way Out (Tenna x Reader)
Summary: Tenna is lost in many feelings, though there may be a clear way out of this mess after all. He'll do what it takes to get you there.
AN: Hi everyone! No content warning :) Thank you guys for being patient. I hope you enjoy this <3 Life's been kicking my ass but loving that TV is forever. Thank you @soul-painter for beta reading!
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Kofi ☆ AO3 Link ☆ Audiofic
Pits aren't as bottomless as they look, turns out.
"WOAH!"
"WOAW!"
"WA-AHHH!"
With each bounce upon outstretched, taunt tarps, Tenna's voice rings out. Past his smothering arms and the blinding rush of passing colors arranged like massive strings of a clown's handkerchiefs, you somehow do manage to notice this about him. He's so…goofy sounding. It's the same voice that spoke to you so softly, lovingly…but it's even more than you expected, too. But how so…?
—Reality hits you again as you and him are swung face-down and you get a good view of the approaching ground. There's one last hit upon a tented tarp— resembling the one you used to use for gardening— and then he rolls onto his back, slithering gradually towards the last half-foot to earth. An "oof" accommodates the sound of his monitor bonking the ground.
You lay there for a second, awkwardly wrapped into his chest, dangling half upside-down thanks to the angle he makes on this makeshift hammock. Eventually, he exhales.
"Hoo!" Tenna says much the same way you might after a rollercoaster ends, breathlessness to match. "THAT was quite the ride, huh!"
The stunning nature of the situation fades, and you pry yourself up— down?— to look at his face. "Tenna! Are you alright?!"
Something about the way his brows wiggle and his head bobs gives you the idea that if he did have eyes, then they'd be swirls right now. "N-not any worse for wear than usual, starshine…!" he replies, feigning confidence. Abruptly, his antennas twist and untwist as if to snap himself out of his state, and he tilts his chin down— up?— to examine you. "Oh my stars and garters, are YOU okay?!"
"Yeah…" you say first before really examining yourself. You do, however, soon realize it's true; a small smile reaches your eyes as relief sets in. "I'm fine."
…
Tenna beams, but it's cut off by a distance screech. He begins to kick his legs off the elevated plastic fabric, careful not to knee you in the process. "Come on," he whispers harshly. "We gotta keep moving."
"B-but…" You look around at the unfamiliar, warped surroundings. "To…where?"
…
…
You don't like how long it takes for Tenna to answer. His smile is strained and so is his laugh. "We'll figure it out!" But then, more sincerely: "We always do."
Because that's right. You always do.
─── ⊹˙₊˚ ˚⋆˙･｡ﾟ*.☆.* ﾟ. ⋆˙₊˚ ₊˚⊹───
The longer you stare, the more you notice. The metal coils act as walls, like a hedge maze but with wire. It's massive, big for even your TV at his full height. There's plants, fake ones maybe; they're vines that look too matte in some places and too shiny in others. He bounces you ever so slightly in each step. Everything's been crazy for a while, and your brain is finally slowing down. Exhaustion, you know from experience, hits so hard after panic. It's like a hard shut down, protecting you until you're capable of appreciating these supernatural circumstances. Who knows? Maybe you've been dreaming this all along.
Rock, rock.
You hear his shuffling, banana-colored shoes, scuffling against debris that resembles dead leaves. That makes sense. You did use the tarps to carry autumn leaves away. First you fell on the tarps, and now you walk through the leaves.
…Yeah. It really is just your memories of this place, huh? More of what the barn represents to you than what it physically was.
Rock, rock.
It's so soothing. He's made of metal underneath the suit, but…he's so soft, too. Rubber? Silicone? It'd be rude to ask, wouldn't it, as you're snug against his chest? You're just about to close your eyes as you stare past the wire fence when you notice…something. A color. The significance of that color wakes you right up.
Tenna's in his own pensive world until he feels a few tugs on his lapel, each more frantic than the last. He stops where he stands, nose pointed down at the precious bundle near his heart. "Star…?" Not as talkative now, thanks to serious thoughts of his own. But he is curious to the point you make; at first he assumes it's towards the vines. Tenna chuckles, thinking he understands. "They look just like yours," he answers, patient but tired. You shake your head.
"Look through them!"
"Mmm…?"
Careful not to smother you against the fence, he leans against the wire wall he nearly passed by, tilting his "head" by the neck so a gap in the metal and green is level with where you'd expect his eye to be. It's hard to see what you're talking about at first, and he says so, but you insist.
"Do you see the orange?"
"Orange? Now why on earth…?"
He leans back out and then back in as if it'll help him refocus. This time, Tenna can sparse through the layers of surrounding walls, and that color in the distance appears. It's such a distinct shade…so familiar.
Wait!
He presses into the mesh with enough force that it begins to bend. "That's my extension cord!"
Indeed it is— er, well, a version of it. In the light world, it's strung across the back yard from the barn to the house. In the dark world, apparently that translates to something a little more literal about it's purpose: a path.
"That's it! If we get out of here and follow the orange cord, that'll take us to the fountain! I'm certain of it!" Tenna cheers.
"Fountain?"
…The grin on his face becomes dampened, but only for the briefest second. "I'll explain that later," he says, because he wants to explain it never. It wasn't on purpose you opened the fountain up. Why lay the guilt on your feet when it all goes away? He knows how attached you get, after all.
"Alrighty!" he continues, renewed with hope. "We'll keep moseying through this wannabe hedge maze, and then we'll be on our way home!"
You like the sound of home. You both like it enough that you ignore the scrambling of stubby feet nearby underneath the shuffle of Tenna through the dead leaves.
─── ⊹˙₊˚ ˚⋆˙･｡ﾟ*.☆.* ﾟ. ⋆˙₊˚ ₊˚⊹───
"Geez… I'm not used to a place like this."
He's been babbling off and on, trying to shake off nerves, but this is the first real statement in a while that you can respond to with more than just a hum of agreement or sympathy. This, in contrast, brings you confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Well, where I come from— the TV World straight from your house— it's a lot more shall we say…populated." His free hand flicks the air; he seems to be utterly full of such gestures, performer he is. "I mean, you can't turn a corner without seeing another fella! And I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm big!"
What a jovial man, able to make a joke like that in these circumstances. Doesn't stop his smile from looking nervous though, nor his anxious fiddling with his necktie.
"It's too…quiet here!" Tenna complains, a shiver down his spine that reaches you, too, as he carries you about. "Too empty! Sure there's THINGS but not darkner things! Just things!" …Tenna sees your perplexed expression and coughs into his fist awkwardly. "…Nonliving things," he corrects.
The more you try to visualize, the less clear things feel. "You mean more things tend to be alive? More than we've met?" Any thing being alive, after all, is a doozy to accept. You can't imagine more creeping in the shadows; the thought gives you goosebumps.
"Well, yeah! Or at least the living things are more plentiful. I had enough of a crew for a whole studio, after all. Here, in this big old place?"
Tenna gestures to the expanse. It echoes his voice and smothers his presence at the same time.
"Makes a guy wonder what happened to everyone."
Makes you wonder, too. The feeling in your gut flips your stomach over, and you realize you can't ignore it anymore.
"I…don't remember entering this maze in the first place," you finally admit. You've been in and out of sorts the whole time, but you'd have remembered the outside of something so distinct, so lavish, right? You nearly jump with how sharply he reacts, his laughter nearly a cough as he barks his relief.
"Ha! You too?! Thank Channel 3!" he exhales as if swearing to a god. Relief, however, quickly turns to dread. But dread, when he looks down and sees your face, simmers down to something more stable; he has to be, after all. He has to be stable for you, no matter how much he'd love to fall to his knees and yank on his antennas. "Now don't look so glum, star!" the giant comforts, and he adjusts his hold of you in the crook of his arm so you're more like a sleepy kid or a baby than a desperate adult clinging to him for dear life. "Everything in the dark is always going to be strange! Even if it's a strangeness I'm not personally used to, it IS a strange kind of strange that in itself isn't so strange! Does that make sense, stranger?"
You can't tell if he hears himself or not, but you understand regardless (of how strange it is). You'd forgive him anyway, with how comforting that smile is. It's a talent to be able to have humor when you'd be terrified in his bright shoes. How does he do it?
"…That's all to say," he continues with a finger wag to the striped sky, "That we're safe."
"…Safe?" you repeat. Tenna knows with your history why you're always skeptical of the word; he nods.
"Safe."
…
"Come on, star," he says again at your hesitation. He makes a few more steps until you both hit what appears to be the center of the maze, large arches opening to structures unseen before. It's like some sort of fanciful garden, vines crawling even along the floor so the living leaves are among the deceased. He gasps in excitement. "Look! They're all fiery sunshine orange over there!" Tenna points out, seeing that one path out of this circular clearing is distinctly lined with a forest floor of more freshly fallen, differently toned plants. "Just like you said!"
You're set down on a garden bench, a familiar painted white that you recall used to be in your backyard sometime before until for whatever reason it was put away. Tenna takes a step back, hands on his hips, and hums to himself.
"Hmm… It's not quite right. May I?"
You nod at his approaching fingers, though unsure what they're about to do. Turns out, they wanted to untie the quilt from your shoulders. Hell, you forgot it was even there, but as soon as it's off, you feel cold and stagnant air of a moist place locked down and deserted.
It doesn't last long, thankfully. The man's gloves pass through one sleeve of his red coat and then the next, balancing the grip of your blanket in one hand and then the other until he ends up with both your outer layer and his own in either grasp. Humming pleasantly to himself, his jacket is laid across the wiry bottom of your seat, the clothing so big that the thickness makes the uncomfortable texture of metal an afterthought. "Okie dokie!" Tenna says after. "Time for you to lay down!"
…You blink. "Why?" Is something wrong with you? You look over yourself and find no, there's no injuries you've missed, even if your mind is foggy on details right now. "I can keep going. You've been carrying me! I—"
A gentle finger taps against your lips. "As your TV," the showman says, "I got an innate sense of when it's just about time to change the program. And it says that YOU!" …He quiets, tone helpful and serene. "…Need your sleep."
…
He wishes you didn't hesitate so much, but he accepts it, too. You've always a hard one to convince, at least when it comes to your own care. You see the TV get on his knees, his smile ever-present, patient and gentle.
"Trust me on this one, okay, star?" One giant hand guides your body to lay down on his coat while the other brings the quilt over your cold skin. "I'll keep watch. Just r-rest up! Okay?"
With your mind being the last thing you can trust right now, it becomes so easy to listen to Tenna. Your body…it does feel tired. And the time…yes, it has been long enough to warrant rest. But there's something you don't understand.
"Why should I rest and not you?"
There's a bob in his throat.
"It's different for me. I don't need it."
…
You opt to trust Tenna instead of your mind, eventually closing your eyes and leaving him to watch over you. But oh, how small he feels in this wilderness. As he hunches over your sleeping form, the cold seeps through his white shirt, and his back feels exposed in a way just right for a predator to come up and slash it open. He's tired. He doesn't know what time it is with no sun, no morning nor afternoon nor evening programming! What's he going to do?
He's so tired…
He looks at you and frowns so hard. He has no idea what he is going to do.
…As if to answer him, the vines in this chamber grow, shape, and change. They form buds, then blossoms, and then unfolded petals. The wire fence canopy is soon utterly lined with moonflowers, the very thing that infected his heart his last night in the world of light. His heart sinks at the thought that the environment itself could just be lying to him; an indoor appliance in an untamed outdoor world, it can't be put past a dark world to harbor resentment to an invader like him. But would you have had any in your heart, that moment you plunged the trowel? He wouldn't blame you. Tenna looks at you, so tranquil and innocent with your hands folded on your chest as you lay on his coat, and yet he doesn't know. You haven't even acknowledged the blade on your hip. There's no malice in you...but there is so, so much hurt. Is your compliance to him a forgiveness? Or is your silence on what happened last night a sign of harm?
That's the real reason why he can't let himself sleep.
