LURID
YANDERE!MR. "ANT" TENNA X LIGHTNER!READER — CHAPTER ONE
⇢ NEXT CHAPTER (COMING SOON)
ABSTRACT: Young and broke, you find a cracked TV outside someone’s house at the curb on your way home from work. On an impulsive decision, you take the TV home. Yet, you are blissfully unaware what you just brought with it. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first fic back from my unofficial hiatus. I may be a little rusty so please be patient with me. CONTENT WARNINGS: yandere behavior, manipulation, guilt tripping, abandonment issues, poverty mentions, derealization. swearing TAGS: gender neutral reader, takes place after chapter 3, no physical descriptors for y/n (race, gender, etc.), no use of y/n, reader is called "star"/"my star" by Tenna, writer tries to write as close to canon as possible, reader is burnt-out from work, writer makes use of gradient text to emulate Tenna's word art dialogue, no proofreading we die like men (N)SFW?: SFW WORD COUNT: 2.1k+ TENNA'S YANDERE ARCHETYPE: obsessive, protective
4:30 pm: the most magical time of day.
Yes, the exact time you clock out from your dead-end job.
"See you tomorrow, Corey." You mutter, waving off your coworker who was waiting to clock out behind you. He gives you a soft grumble as his nametag clicks to the time clock.
"Yeah, yeah, just make sure you get here on time tomorrow. You know the morning rush is a shitshow when someone's late." He muttered, running his fingers through his greasy hair.
"Says the guy who's always late with a energy drink in hand." You grumbled under your breath, adjusting your jacket as you step outside of the diner with the bell ringing overhead.
The spring air feels good against your sore joints and tired eyes as you begin your trek back to your apartment, feeling its keys in your pocket as you pop an earbud into your ear. Soft music in your left ear accompanies you on your journey back home, kicking a pebble along as you drag your aching feet.
The pebble skips and hops along the pavement until it rolls right into the grass of a front yard. However, your gaze is immediately caught by the television left by their dumpster: a large, weblike crack across the screen. You find yourself stopping in front of the television, looking down at its pitiful state as a zephyr cards through the fabric of your clothing and sways the television's antennas. Your television had recently broken last week: it just stopped working. Maybe the universal remote you had at home would work on this one.
Looking out at the house then at your apartment complex down the road, you weigh your options. This TV might be broken as well, but maybe it was work a shot. It looked old as hell but maybe you could put something together with the electrician techniques you learned from trade school before you dropped out.
Looking back down at the television, you let out a sigh before bending at the knees and picking up with a grunt. It was a little heavier than you expected. But it wasn't unbearable, just unwieldly. With the old TV in your arms, you carry it towards your apartment complex.
Adjusting your hold on the TV, you punch the code to your complex in on the withered keypad while trying to balance the TV in one arm. The main door clicked open and you pushed the door open, revealing the peeling wallpaper and moist carpet stench of the main hallway. You trudge to the dingy elevator, knowing damn well you aren't carrying this thing up four flights of stairs, and elbowing the up button on the wall.
With a sigh, the elevator lets out a distorted chime and opens its doors to reveal the dingy elevator before you. Stepping inside with a grunt, you elbow the fourth floor button before adjusting your hold once more. The doors whine shut as the elevator begins its ascent to your floor. Looking down at the television, your nose itches from the dust on the top. It was obvious who ever had this TV didn't watch it much and kind of left it to rot.
Once the elevator reaches the fourth floor, the doors pry open with a groan and you step out. Your hands were starting to hurt from carrying it, but your room wasn't too far. With aching steps, you get to your apartment and shoulder your door open after unlocking it. Inside is your sanctuary from customer complaints and the smell of oil and grease that radiated off you after every grueling shift.
Finally, you set the TV down on the old stand you had for the decommissioned one you had off to the side and let your arms rest.
"Fuck, that felt like it was never gonna end," You groan, tilting your neck to let it pop. "Now let's see what's up with you." You add, plugging the TV into the nearby outlet to see what you were working with and it didn't even turn on. "Great, did I just lug a piece of junk all the way up here?" You mutter, giving the TV a good smack to see if there is any reaction. A flicker came from the screen, showing a possibility of fixing it. Alright, it's possible to get it to work.
For hours, you find yourself hunched over your new TV, taking pieces off and fixing some faulty wires inside that seemed like they were probably cut. It was odd since there seemed to be no exterior damage besides the screen. Besides, the crack would not cause this kind of damage. It's almost like an invisible knife cut through the inside. Luckily, with some wires and bits and bobs you stole from your old TV, you slowly put the TV back together. Even your old TV had the same screen like they were similar models.
As you click the brown shell back on the front with the new screen in place, you plug it in once more only for the screen to flicker to life and start playing a sitcom.
"Fuck, I actually fixed it." You mutter, grabbing the remote from your coffee table. You click some of the buttons to see if it will change channels and it did, flickering from some child cartoons, old sitcoms, a cheesy romcom, and a Godzilla-type film.
Feeling proud of yourself, you stand to your feet with a smile pulling at the corners of your lips.
"Finally." You mutter to yourself, still feeling the grease on your work uniform against your skin. You could finally shower and fresh up and then enjoy some TV. You walk off, leaving the TV running as you go to shower the grease and sweat from your dead-end job away.
The muffled voices of the sitcom you let run can be heard through the thin walls of your apartment as you step into the bathroom, as if they were keeping you company. Letting the warm water run over your body as you step into the shower relieves the pain in your sore joints. As you step out of the shower, you feel rejuvenated as you wrap yourself in a towel, walking to your bedroom as the muffled laugh track of a sitcom follows.
After getting into some comfortable pajamas, the voices cut out abruptly, making you curse under your breath thinking the TV died again. Stepping out of your room, you head towards your main room only to stop.
It was only like 7 PM, it should not be this dark. A wall of darkness obscures your main room but you could see the rest of your hallway just fine. It's like its just a pitch black wall before you. You look down to see some black smoke billowing around the floor like fog, making you curse thinking you set off an electrical fire with your DIY wire-work.
"Oh fuck!" You curse as you rush into the darkness only to feel like the carpet below your feet disappeared and you began to fall. Letting out a scream as it felt like you were falling stories down into a pit of void, your body finally collides with a pile of snow with a grunt.
The freezing cold sends a shock through your body as you scramble to get up, dusting yourself off only to get a good look at yourself, realizing your skin was a greenish blue and that you were wearing a... leather coat with some baggy jeans and a band shirt for... Lightners Live? What kind of band was that?
Your head felt like it was spinning as you tried to gather yourself as you looked out to see an expanse of snowy hills and a billowing black energy beam off in the distance that somehow contrasted the black starry sky.
What is this place? You mentally ask yourself as you waddle out of the oddly convenient snowpile.
A bright light snaps you from your thoughts, making you look around to see some sort of spotlight was on you as you wince to comprehend your surroundings.
"What a SPECTACULARLY AMAZING job you did! Patching me up like that when I was at my absolute lowest point, what a compassionate star you are!" an eccentric voice boomed from an unknown source. "Everything went black and I really thought that was the end for my OUTSTANDING game shows and sitcoms and the curtains would finally close! But you, you, you put me back together!" The voice boomed as a clapping track began to resound and multicolored confetti filled the air.
"What is this? Who are you?!" You called out, the words leaving your lips before you could stop them.
"Haha, I was hoping you'd ask!" The voice echoed only for a second spotlight to shine before you to reveal a towering figure before you. The figure was humanoid but with exaggerated male proportions, broad shoulders empathized by a red suit jacket with shoulder pads. A lemon yellow tie hung from the collar of his white undershirt. He had black slacks on his long legs accompanied with yellow leather shoes and a golden belt buckle of a television. Where his head would be sat a lavender television with deep periwinkle antennas. His face was the television's large white screen with a cartoony grin and a long cone-shaped nose.
"My name is Mr. "Ant" Tenna, your friendly TV host right here in this dark world!" He proclaimed, raising his gloved hands in the air in excitement as he beamed with a radiating pride.
"Dark... world?" You question, taking a small step back as you look up at this looming figure. Despite him having no visible eyes, you could feel his gaze on you as his head tilted down to look at you as he put his hands down.
"Oh! You're new around these parts, aren't you? No one has taught you THE ROPES? Well, don't fret! I can teach you the ins-and-outs of this place! You have any questions to start, hmm?" He questioned, leaning down closer to you as if to get a closer look at you.
"Okay... Well, how do I get out?" You question only for him to freeze up.
"Get... out?" were the only words he could muster before went silent, his screen face turning pitch black as his head tilted down as if he was looking at the floor.
Suddenly, he reeled back in a nearly contagious fit of laughter "Ha! Hahaha! You're very funny, my star! What a HUMOROUS joke! Isn't that right, folks?" He asked out to the air only for a laugh track to ensue. "My STAR, you just got here! And I must say you have a face built for the BIG SCREEN! So why not stay awhile, see what I have in store for you!" He stated, patting the top of your head like a pet.
"Well, uh, I'm honored with your... compliment, but I don't think I belong here." You muttered, pulling back from his touch.
"Nonsense! The Knight wouldn't give this dark world another chance if it wasn't meant for anyone!" He bantered before snapping his fingers and a door you didn't even realize was there opened, its double doors agape as if beckoning you to get closer. To this, he began to swagger past you. "Now, come, we have plenty of things in store!"
"Wait a minute, I didn't agree to anything!" You called out as he stopped before the double doors.
"You... don't want to be a star?" He asked, his voice once so boisterous now bordering on pathetic. Slowly, he began to shrink, his antennas going slack as to display disappointment. "Oh, geez, did I go too far? I just got so excited and..." He muttered as he shrank into himself. "...I just wanted to make you happy... I can see the bags under your eyes and I thought I could cheer up at least one person... I guess I failed at that too..." He muttered, shrinking down to your height with his back still turned to you. For some reason, your heart churned at his disappointment. You had worked so hard to bring him back only to deny him...
"Wait." You find the words leaving your mouth before you could thinking it through. "I'll play along, please don't be upset." You fawned, taking steps closer to him as your new boots crushed the snow beneath them.
"Really?" He spoke up, sounding a hint hopeful before shooting back up to his normal size and doing a little jig out of excitement.
"OH BOY! You scared me there for a second! Now, MY SHINING STAR! We have plenty of things to do!"
SONG OF THE FIC: A HUMAN'S TOUCH — TWRP FT. MCKENNA RAE
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