Chapter Text
The first thing you became aware of was just how dizzy you felt. It was as if the world was spinning around you, yet you didn’t even have your eyes open. The second thing you became aware of was that it felt like you were laying on a hard surface. That felt wrong for some reason, though you weren’t able to exactly explain why, but it felt like you were supposed to be laying on a soft surface, as if that was the norm, and this was different and wrong. You decided to open your eyes to try and finally figure out what was going on, and if your head was already spinning with them closed surely opening them couldn’t make it much worse.
As you slowly blinked open your eyes, you were initially surprised by how bright it was, causing you to squint against the light. Not only was the light almost blinding at first, but your vision was also filled with a bunch of vivid primary colours. Shapes of red, yellow, blue and green filled your field of view as you looked upwards at the ceiling from where you were laying on your back. As you blinked to adjust your eyes to the light, you started to realise that these shapes were actually figures.
Three individuals stared down at you from where they loomed over your body. The small yellow one had a shock of bright blue hair, and the green one seemed to be covered in fur, an animal of some kind. The red one was very tall, and their hair obscured most of their face except for their eyes. Overall, whatever these things were, they seemed rather weird, to say the least.
“Is it dead?” the green one asked bluntly. As his yellow bill moved as he spoke, you recognised him to be at least similar to some sort of duck.
“I dunno, they have their eyes open, so I don’t think so,” the red one stated in a monotone voice, hair in front of his mouth moving as he spoke.
“That doesn’t mean anything, I had my eyes open when I was dead!” the duck exclaimed confidently, raising a finger in the air to accentuate his point.
“Yeah, well you know, I don’t think you were really dead, to be honest,” the red guy muttered, glancing away for a moment.
“Yes, I was!” the duck claimed insistently. “You’re just jealous again about how I got to be dead and you didn’t!”
As the two of them continued to bicker, you raised your hands up to your face to rub your eyes but froze once your hands came into view. They were two solid mitts with thumbs, made out of soft felt. You stared at them. That didn’t seem right. You quickly struggled up into a sitting position, and looked down at the rest of your body. Your arms and legs and everything else seemed to be made from the same soft material. It felt… wrong… yet you couldn’t quite understand why. You felt like you were supposed to be made of meat and blood, but you also couldn’t properly remember.
You reached up and ran a hand through your hair, which was made of a fluffy material. You turned your head to look up at the figures surrounding you, the duck and the red guy still bickering between themselves, while the yellow one looked down at you with his head tilted slightly to the side in curiosity, or perhaps confusion. You felt very… small. You felt like you were not supposed to be this small, yet you also were not sure how big you were supposed to be either.
“I… don’t think I’m dead,” you announced unsurely, interrupting the argument, and turning everybody’s attention back to you.
“Oh, alright then, if that’s the case, what are you here to teach us about?” the red guy asked, looking at you expectantly, head slightly cocked to the side.
“I… wh-what?” you asked, looking up at their faces with confusion.
“Well, you see, there’s three of us,” Red said, gesturing to the others. “And anyone else who shows up is here to teach us something. So that must be why you are here.”
“I’m… I’m not… I don’t think I’m a teacher…” you said in a small uncertain voice.
“Well, you can’t be one of us, because there’s only ever three of us!” Duck explained confidently, crossing his arms over his chest.
“So then why are you here?” the yellow guy asked in a slow, lumbering tone, the first time he had spoken so far.
“I… I don’t know…” you stuttered out, your posture deflating as you lowered your head slightly to look at the checkered floor.
Suddenly you were surprised to feel hands on your upper arms, and before you knew what was happening you were being lifted into the air, before being set down on your feet. Looking down, your thin felt legs didn’t look like they should be able to support the weight of your body, yet somehow, they did. You quickly turned your head to look up, the red guy standing over you with his hands still resting on your upper arms from where he had effortlessly lifted you up. He had to be at least two times your height. He let go of you and took a step back.
“You can’t be one of us, because there’s only three of us. So, you must be a teacher,” Red insisted.
“So hurry up and teach us something, let's get this over and done with already!” Duck snapped, arms still crossed and tapping one foot against the tiled floor impatiently.
All three of them were now looking at you expectantly, and you looked between their three faces nervously. “Wh-What am I supposed to teach you about?” you asked, not sure what else to say, as you felt the pressure to live up to their insistent expectations.
Duck scowled at you and Red gave a full body shrug.
“Usually the teachers look like… like a thing…” Yellow started trying to explain haltingly, “But you… don’t look like a thing… you look more like one of us…”
“Don’t be so stupid, they can’t be one of us, we’ve already been over this, there are just three of us! Not four!” Duck snapped in irritation.
“Guess if you’re not one of us, and not a teacher, then you need to go,” Red said with another shrug.
“G-Go? Go where?” you asked, voice pitching up slightly from anxiety. “Where are we even?”
“We’re here,” Duck said, entirely unhelpfully.
“But where is here?” you pressed.
“Here is where we are,” Red explained, equally as unhelpful.
“But where is that?!” you almost yelled in frustration.
The two of them looked at each other in confusion, and then back at you blankly.
“This is our house!” Yellow piped in, not any more helpful than the others.
“Yes, I could probably have figured that out, but where is your house?” you asked through gritted teeth.
“It’s where we live!” Yellow said cheerily.
You reached up a hand and dragged it down your face slowly.
You twitched slightly as Red stepped around behind you and placed his large hands on your shoulders. Then he started pushing you forward, making you almost stumble before you caught your balance and started walking. “Huh?” you said in confusion as you were pushed across the room. As you walked and looked around, you actually started to notice more of the details of your surroundings. This room appeared to be a kitchen/dining room of some sort, dominated by a round table surrounded by three chairs. There were also kitchen benches, sink, cabinets, and a fridge.
Red pushed you past all these things and towards an archway that led out of the room, into a small entryway which contained little more than a coat rack. Red stopped you in front of what you assumed to be the front door of the house and reached past your shoulder to turn the doorknob. He pulled the door open, and then continued to push you through it, until you were standing on the front step of the house.
You blinked in the bright outdoor light, which was more intense than the internal lighting. Squinting your eyes and raising a hand to shield them, you looked at the surroundings of the house. Green ground extended from the house all around and over the hills, with round trees dotted here and there across the landscape. A road led away from the house and disappeared over a hill. There was nothing else to be seen, no other houses around or any other landmarks.
“Alright then, off you go,” Red said, giving you a gentle push forward and letting go, causing you to stumble down the step. You caught your balance again and quickly turned back to look at him. Yellow and Duck were standing on either side of him, and all three of them were waving you goodbye.
“W-Wait!” you exclaimed desperately, looking around anxiously. “Wh-Where am I supposed to go?”
The three of them looked at each other uncertainly. “We don’t know where they go when they are finished… they just sort of… leave,” Red explained vaguely.
“Well hurry up and go now, we have to get ready for when the next guy turns up,” Duck said dismissively, before turning and walking back into the house. Yellow looked uncertainly between you and Duck, before quickly following after him without a word.
“Sorry. Uh, good luck,” Red said, before he also retreated back into the house, closing the door behind him.
You felt yourself deflate a little. You looked at the house sadly for a moment, before turning away from it, and started trudging down the road that led off into the hills.
You walked for a long time. Well, you didn’t have any exact way to quantify the time you spent wandering down that road, but it felt like an awful long time, even though you didn’t feel tired from walking at all. As you walked, you tried to think. This whole world felt wrong. No matter how far you walked you saw nothing more than the rolling green hills, the round trees and the road. You didn’t come across a single car on the road the entire time. The world didn’t feel right, but you weren’t exactly sure how it was supposed to be either.
Just like how you didn’t feel right yourself, yet you also couldn’t remember how you were supposed to be, if you had ever been anything else. You couldn’t remember who you were at all, or where you had come from. You were just here, now, as you were, with no idea of what to do except to keep walking.
Eventually there was an indicator that time was passing, and that was that the sun started to set. The perfect blue sky grew orange and pink, and the endless landscape was bathed in a golden light, before the sun disappeared, leaving you in darkness. As the final remnants of sunlight disappeared from the sky, the stars started to become visible. You stared up at them longingly as you walked but didn’t know exactly why you were doing that. It was one thing that felt somewhat familiar in this strange world, perhaps.
As you looked at the stars while walking, you noticed that one of them appeared to be growing in size. That didn’t seem right to you, but you watched in silently as its light grew and grew. Soon you realised that the star was actually getting closer to you, coming down from the sky in your direction. Soon it was close enough for you to make out its details through its bright light. It was light gold in colour, had five points, and thin black arms and legs protruding from its body, along with eyes and a smiling mouth.
The star flew towards you, and once close it stopped, hovering in the air in front of you as you stared at it in confusion. “You look lost!” the star exclaimed, putting a hand over its mouth to stifle a giggle.
“I suppose you are right about that,” you responded dejectedly, sighing.
“Did you know that when you are lost, you can use the stars to find your way?” the star told you as it gestured towards the other stars which sat against the dark backdrop of the sky.
“You can help me?” you asked hopefully.
“Of course, follow me and I’ll lead you home!” the star exclaimed cheerily, and gestured with its hand for you to follow, before floating off towards the side of the road. You blinked a couple of times in surprise, before turning and following the star, thinking it was worth a shot rather than continuing to follow the endless road.
The star giggled again, and gestured some more, before flying up the hill a short way. You quickly hurried to catch up, following the star as it dodged through the trees while ascending the hill. Every time it stopped it gestured to you enthusiastically to hurry up. Eventually you were running up the hill as fast as you could after the star, which was now hovering at the top. You slowed as you approached the crest of the hill, climbing the last few steps to peer over it and see what was on the other side. As you saw what it was, your demeanour fell once more.
At the bottom of the other side of the hill sat a pink house, the same house you took off from what must have been hours ago. You were confused, you had no idea how you could have possibly looped so far back around.
“There you go, you’re home!” the star exclaimed happily, clapping its little hands together while grinning.
“N-No…” you started with clear disappointment, looking down at the house with dismay.
“You’re welcome!” the star announced cheerily, giggling before it started rising into the air, flying back up into the sky.
“W-Wait, that’s not my-” you called out after it, but it didn’t seem to hear you as it whizzed quickly away, “-home…”
You sighed heavily, turning your attention back to the house, the only thing that wasn’t a tree that you had seen in your whole time here. The empty landscape felt even more sinister in the dark, so you took a deep breath and started making your way down the hill towards the house.
You skidded a few times on your way down the slope, nearly losing your footing on a number of occasions. Eventually you stumbled down the bottom of the hill, and then made your way back up to the front door of the house. Standing on the front step, you hesitated for a moment with your hand raised in front of the door, mitten hand curled into a fist. Then, seeing no other option, you reached it forward and made a muffled knock against the door.
Letting your arm fall back by your side, you waited for any sort of response from the other side. After a few moments you heard heavy footsteps from inside, and then the door opened. Red stood in the doorway in front of you, looking down at you rather perplexed.
“Oh. It’s you again,” he said with puzzlement. “They usually don’t come back…”
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find anywhere else to go,” you tried to explain apologetically. “And then a star came down from the sky and said it would lead me home, but it brought me back here.”
“But this is our home…” Red said with confusion and uncertainty. “And there’s just-”
“Yes yes I know, there’s only three of you. But please, could you let me stay? It’s so dark out here and I’m scared,” you implored, looking up at the big guy desperately.
Red looked thoughtful for a moment, bringing a mitten hand up to where his chin would be under the hair. “Okay, I guess it is pretty spooky out there,” he conceded, and stepped to the side to invite you inside with a sweeping gesture.
“Thank you, thank you so much,” you said as you hurried back into the house. Once you were inside Red shut the door behind you, then followed you through the arch and into the kitchen. Yellow and Duck looked up from the table that they were seated at as you entered, then you stood awkwardly a little distance from them, not sure what to do next.
“This one again?” Duck asked loudly. “What are they doing here?”
“They said there was nowhere else,” Red explained, looming behind you somewhat. “And that they met a star which said this was their home.”
“But this is our home,” Yellow said with firm conviction, seemingly slightly upset.
“And there’s only three of us,” Duck said with a nod of agreement. “There’s not any room for another one. We only have three beds.”
“Th-That’s okay, maybe I can sleep on the couch?” you suggested nervously.
“We don’t have a couch,” Red said emotionlessly.
“O-Oh…” you said sadly. “Well… I guess I can just sleep on the floor then.”
“Hrmph,” Duck made a noise of annoyance, clearly not placated by that answer.
“We need to finish dinner before bed anyway,” Red said, gesturing towards the three plates set out on the table in front of the three chairs.
You felt hunger pangs as your stomach grumbled. You were pretty sure that guts presumably made of cloth like the rest of your body shouldn’t be able to get hungry, but yet the sensation was all too familiar to you as you stared at the food laid out on the table. “Could… could I maybe have some?” you asked timidly.
The three of them gave you incredulous looks. “But there are only three plates,” Duck pointed out.
You glanced at the cabinet on the wall slightly behind you and to your right. “Surely you have more than three plates, right?” you asked with a bit of humour forced into your voice, and you stepped over to the cabinet. You had to reach up high just to be able to grab the handles on the doors, which you pulled open. As soon as you did so, a cascade of plates tumbled out of the cupboard and onto you. You quickly shielded yourself with your arms as the plates crashed to the floor and broke around your feet, until the ceramic waterfall ended.
When you looked back up into the cabinet you found it to be completely empty and looking around your feet you found every plate that had fallen to be smashed into pieces on the tiles. You sighed deeply and turned to look at the others.
“We did have more than three plates, but now we don’t,” Duck said in a somewhat weirdly smug matter-of-fact way.
“It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, as we only have three chairs at the table, so there would be nowhere for you to sit,” Yellow added.
Your shoulders sagged in defeat, and your stomach rumbled again while the rest of them stared at you in their blank manner that you were starting to become rather accustomed to.
You were startled slightly as Red stepped towards you and reached out, putting his hands under your arms, and then lifting you into the air. You let out a small sound of surprise as you were carried over to the empty seat at the table. At first you assumed he was going to place you down in his seat, but instead you were surprised again when sat in the seat himself and set you down in his lap. His felt body was warm against your back.
“Hey, you can’t do that!” Duck exclaimed, scowling at him.
“Why not?” Red asked, and you could feel him shrug. You felt heat creeping up into your cheeks as you sat stiffly on his lap.
“Because that’s not how this works!” Duck snapped with annoyance.
“So what?” Red responded nonchalantly.
“It’s… just not right!” Duck growled, then crossed his arms over his chest and raised his shoulders up, puffing himself up with anger.
“You sounded hungry; do you want some of mine?” Red asked, gesturing over your shoulder to the food on the plate in front of you, clearly ignoring the hissy fit his companion was throwing one seat over.
“Yes please…” you said, feeling slightly embarrassed. You reached out and picked up the knife and fork. “But what about you?” you asked, turning your head to look back up at him questioningly.
“I already had some and I’m not very hungry, I’ll be fine,” Red said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
You decided to take his word for it, and started digging into the food with gusto, while Duck and Yellow watched on with irritation and confusion respectively.
“Are you the mom?” Yellow suddenly asked, catching you off guard.
“Huh?” was all you could manage to get out of your food filled mouth, unsure what he meant.
“Well, they both want to be the dad,” Yellow started to explain, nodding towards the others. “And I’m the weird pet, so does that make you the mom? Like a proper family?”
“I thought we weren’t a family, but more of a clump…” Red offered feebly.
“I don’t want to be in a clump!” Duck protested adamantly. “Besides, they can’t be the mom because there’s just three of us. That’s our thing, that’s how the song goes.”
“The song?” you asked with confusion through another mouthful of food.
“You’ll see tomorrow,” Red said, patting you lightly on the shoulder in reassurance.
“O-Okay,” you said, and went back to eating the food. You noticed the other two were still looking at you with apprehension, though also in a way that felt a little dangerous, at least on Duck’s part. It made you feel apprehensive in return.
Once the meal was finished, Red picked you up off his lap again and placed you down on the floor. Then he started gathering up the empty plates to take over to the sink.
“I could help you wash up?” you offered, feeling like you should do something to repay his kindness of sharing a meal with you.
“Hey, that’s my job!” Yellow protested loudly, scowling at you.
“Huh?” was all you could really offer in return, once again perplexed.
“I always help with the dishes! I dry the plates, that’s my job,” Yellow reiterated insistently.
“Okay okay,” you yielded, putting your hands up in the air. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to help.”
Red turned after placing the plates down on the edge of the sink and walked back over towards you. You flinched slightly as he towered over you, then he bent down and picked you up again, carrying you over to the sink. He sat you down on the benchtop next to where the dirty plates sat.
“Hey, it’s my job, my job!” Yellow whined and he jumped off his chair and came over towards the sink.
“You can still dry the plates,” Red said to Yellow, “they can help rinse the dishes before they go in the water.”
“Why are you trying to include them?” Duck snapped from the table; body twisted around to look at them. “They are not one of us.”
Red shrugged. “I kind of like them. They seem alright.”
You were already rinsing off the first of the plates while Red was filling the sink with water and detergent. You decided you didn’t really want to add to the argument, thinking maybe if you just stayed quiet unless you needed to say anything, maybe it would all just work out. Yellow seemed relatively satisfied that he got to keep his dish drying duties and fulfilled them with enthusiasm.
Afterward Duck finally left the table as well, and after you were placed back on the floor the group of them filed through the door into the next room. You followed after them, stepping into what appeared to be the lounge or living room area, which had three seats and a television. Each of them took a seat, and Red used the remote to turn on the television.
You were not sure what to do, given that there were only three chairs and not another in sight, so you got somewhat close to Red’s chair before taking a seat on the floor, on the opposite side of him from Duck, who still didn’t seem to be very happy with you at all. You looked up at Red out of the corner of your eye and saw he was looking down at you. So far, he had been the one who seemed to like, or at least tolerate, your presence the most.
On the television, a simple claymation show with two characters was playing. There was a dog and also a person whose appearance was oddly familiar to you. The word ‘human’ came to mind, but you were not quite sure what it meant. You felt like you once knew what it meant, but the memory of it was just out of reach, no matter how hard you tried to grab at it.
“The dog is Grolton, and the man is Hovris,” Yellow proclaimed confidently.
“Noooooo,” Duck started, drawing out the word, “it’s the other way around, stupid.”
You then realised that they were talking about the names of the characters, and it was as if you suddenly remembered names as a concept. That’s right, people had words they used to refer to each other by, especially if they needed to get someone’s attention.
“Do you guys have names?” you asked the group tentatively, watching their faces for their reactions.
“Of course, we do,” Duck said conceitedly. “Do you?”
You opened your mouth to answer, but the sound died in your throat. You cleared it and attempted to speak again. “I think I did have one, it… feels like I had… have one… but I just can’t seem to remember it…” you explained haltingly, then slouched in defeat.
“Forgot your own name? Your memory is even worse than his!” Duck exclaimed, nodding towards Yellow.
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Yellow argued back indignantly.
“Yes it is, you forgot the password after all, your one job,” Duck said smugly.
“Aw… but I remembered it eventually…” Yellow said, lowering his head dejectedly.
You waited for their conversation to finish before speaking up again. “So, what are your na-”
“Shhhh! This is a good bit!” Duck cut you off, staring intently at the television and leaning forward.
“How do you know that it’s a good bit if we have never watched this episode before?” Red asked languidly, rolling his eyes slightly.
“Because I can always tell when a good bit is coming, now quiet down you lot and let’s see what happens,” Duck instructed. You fell quiet and turned your attention back to the television. Nothing of particular interest seemed to be occurring in the show.
It didn’t feel like that much longer before suddenly Duck declared “Okay, it’s time for bed!” and suddenly the screen of the television went dark as it was abruptly shut off in the middle of the show.
“B-But… the show isn’t finished yet?” you said with confusion. Not because you were enjoying it at all, but more because it seemed like such an odd thing to do, especially considering how engaged both Duck and Yellow seemed to have been in the show.
“But it’s bedtime,” Duck repeated, giving you a bewildered look. “Just look at the clock.” He pointed up to the wall behind his chair, and your eyes followed until they landed on a clock hanging on the wall with a blue face and red hands. It had eyes and a mouth as well. It smiled down at you silently. You felt a shiver run up your spine for some unknown reason. Maybe it had something to do with everything being so… alive in this world, while simultaneously the world feeling so empty.
They all got up from their chairs and headed through the door, and you didn’t know what else to do but to follow them. You certainly didn’t want to be left alone in this place, it felt too strange, and having company was the only thing bringing you comfort at the moment, despite how strange these guys were.
You followed them through the house and into what was apparently their shared bedroom, as sure enough there were three beds lined up together in the room, with a nightstand with a lamp between each. One of the beds was a lot larger/longer than the other two, and considering the red colour of the sheets, you assumed that was Red’s bed.
While everyone was climbing into their beds and getting under the covers, you stood in the middle of the room, looking around and sizing up your options in terms of floor space (the rug looked quite soft) and also wondering if anyone might offer you a blanket at least, but too worried about stirring up trouble again if you asked for one. Then you noticed that while the other two were already snug under the covers of their beds, Red was still standing next to his, watching you.
“You could maybe share my bed, if you like,” he offered softly, gesturing to his bed.
“You can’t do that!” Duck piped up from his bed crossly. “There are three of us and three beds. Two people can’t share one bed, that’s not how it works.”
“Well, I don’t really see why not,” Red offered with a shrug, then looked at you expectantly.
“O-Okay…” you agreed hesitantly, enticed by the option of not sleeping on the floor. You stepped over to Red’s bed as he got into it, and then clambered up the side to lay down next to him on the mattress. He lay more on one side of the mattress and on his side to make a small amount of room for you in what was very much a single bed. It was enough, considering how small you were compared to him, though you were somewhat forced to press up against his chest a bit.
As Red pulled the covers up over you both, you heard Duck make a disgruntled noise before rolling over in his own bed, so his back was toward you. You sighed and tried to get comfortable where you were laying. You were slightly surprised when Red put an arm over you, used it to turn off the lamp on the nightstand, and then pulled it back under the covers and let it rest against you.
“Sorry, I hope you don’t mind if I rest my arm here?” he mumbled the question quietly.
“Th… that’s fine…” you responded in a hushed tone.
Despite being made out of fabric, Red felt very warm pressed up against you. It was quite nice and comfortable actually, and you definitely didn’t feel alone at least. You closed your eyes, allowing yourself to drift off to sleep, feeling warm and safe.