Chapter Text
Castle town was.. New. It was odd, for Tenna, having to get used to just being a normal person- a normal civilian in some town. He had a few street shows, every now and then, but no stage, no cameras, nothing. He was just eccentric ol’ Mr. Anthony “Ant” Tenna.
Well- not really. His employees still liked him, as surprising as it sounds! They check in on him, a few crash on his couch, hell, some still call him ‘Boss’! Honestly, it was almost pathetic how enthusiastic he was whenever they brought him food, or a drink, or even just called him Boss in passing. His screen would light up, his antennae would spring up ram-rod straight even as he tried to keep his cool and play it off. It wasn’t too many employees, about a classrooms’ worth. That is to say, 28 or so different people. And Mike.
Tenna liked to think of them all as a little community! They didn’t run anymore from his.. Outbursts, the few he even has nowadays (..Still a lot of them. And they have taken to calling them tantrums, much to Tenna’s annoyance.) But instead, they just stick with him. Or leave, and get him some water later, once he’s cooled down. At first, to him, it was pure condescension, bitter and acrid whenever he faced it. God, he hated being condescended. But the longer they stuck around, the more he got used to it. The more he appreciated it. The more he.. Liked it a little. It showed him they cared, you know?
Spamton had recently taken to coming by, too. He didn’t have much of a home, and he didn’t ask for one either, oddly..? He just hopped around, and he seemed to enjoy it. But he seemed to enjoy being in Tenna’s home more. Spamton would also eat most of his kromer, yes, eat it. He didn’t know how. He felt poorer coming out of every interaction, but golly, the puppet sure was a charmer! He was a charmer before, too..
He didn’t like thinking about the before. It bummed him out!
(at night, he did though.. He thought about it a lot.)
He had been trying to get some televisions set up around Castle Town, a fruitless endeavor so far. Ralsai was running circles around him! Writing up unnecessary forms and papers when he could just.. Cauldron up a few CRT’s! He KNEW he could! HE SAW HIM DO IT!
There wasn’t even anybody to turn them into..! He just filled them out and held onto them until Ralsai could get them started, and for WHAT?!
And that's where Tenna found himself now, in his cramped little ‘office’, reading the same lines over and over of convoluted paragraph after paragraph that made him feel like static was pouring into his head. That goat wrote in circles! Er, SPIRALS! He’d write on and on, and get close to his original point, but never actually come back to it. Just growing more and more complex and- and complicated, if they weren’t sensitive, Tenna would rip his antennae out! With the screen-ache all these papers were giving him, he might actually do it!
He didn’t notice the Pippin and Shadow Guy peeking through the door, watching him nearly tear his dials out over those forms. They glanced at each other, confused, until Tenna let out a frustrated groan. His CRT let out a loud whine, one that made the Pippin wince, both him and the ShadowGuy looking at each other. They talked in hushed whispers, or on ShadowGuy’s end, hushed hands.
“ What should we do? Just leave him alone?”
(“ I’m not cleaning this room up again.”)
“Wait, didn’t he say sumthin’ about that whine back when he was fighting? Something about.. Walking?”
(“Yeah, yeah! That whine means he’s beggin’ fer a walk!”)
“ Well then, why doesn’t he go get up and take one?”
(“Maybe he means like a dog. Y’know, walkin’ a dog.”)
The Pippin seemed to think on that, before digging in its pockets and putting out a small dog collar. “I have the leash for it too, but its back in-” He noticed the weirded out look on his compatriot’s face, and got defensive. “Hey! I was gonna sell it as a necklace to Kris! You know they buy anything.” All ShadowGuy did was sigh, and walk away to go and fetch the leash. Get it? Fetch?
–
God, Tenna was a mess. He’d long ago shoved the papers to the side, feeling his frustration threaten to take him up and swallow him whole. His glass heart ached, and a tight feeling in his again, glass throat felt like it was going to choke him. He laid his head against the table, not minding the slight uncomfortableness that came with having his schnoz pressed down and against the wooden desk, nor the curve of his screen that made it difficult to find a comfortable position. He banged a fist against the table, quickly sitting up and freezing as he heard a click! And a constricting piece of leather around his neck.
It didn’t take long for him to start kicking and shouting, but he felt and heard the sounds of something clicking into place and suddenly he was on the floor, his mouth damn-near kissing the ground as he scrambled to get his palms on the ground.
“BY THE ROARING KNIGHT! Just WHAT in the fresh HELL are you two trying to- hrk-” He got yanked up onto all fours, his knees dragging on the ground as his knuckles found the feeling of rough hardwood floors. “You ain’t gotta beg, boss! We’ll walk ya!” The Pippin exclaimed proudly, a big old smile on his face even as Tenna snarled at him and damn-near screamed to be let go. All he got was a spray of water to the face, his face blurring into static as he paused and processed it all. He still snarled, but he stopped tugging against the pull of the leash, all it would lead to is more water.. And that’s no good for his wires!
He took a breath and morphed his snarl into something nicer, though his annoyance ran deep into it. “S-sorry for yelling, fellas, but this is all a bit out of the blue! Mind uh, mind unLEASHING me..?!” He choked the words out, he wanted nothing more than to yell at them, but more water was the last thing he needed on his head.
“No can do boss, you ain’t trained for that!”
Tenna’s smile twitched.
“I’m not meant to be getting walked in the first pla-AH-ACK-”
The Pippin just stood in shock, watching as the ShadowGuy placed a magnet right at the back of Tenna’s head. It looked strong, but Tenna didn’t seem to be in pain. He was tensed up, his body trembling as his face flickered and his fans kicked into high gear, as some bizarre feeling crashed through all the way to his head and the warm, fuzzy, staticy pleasure trickled down to the rest of him, his hips stuttering as he struggled between trying to shy away from it or buck into it. He whined loud when the magnet was pulled away, a dazed look on his face as he tried to catch his breath.
“What was that for?!” the Pippin motioned to Tenna, and ShadowGuy shrugged.
(“I dunno, most people shock dogs when they misbehave. It looks like it worked pretty well..”)
Pippin gripped the leash, chuckling a bit. Wow, his friend sure knew his stuff! They should probably get on with the walk, now, though..
ShadowGuy took the leash from his hand, tugging Tenna along. The poor CRT was still dazed, still trying to blink away the stars behind his eyes and get the static out of his head. He crawled along, his antenna twitching as he tried keeping pace. All they were doing was walking down the hallway, not like anybody was going to see them, they were all sleeping... Tenna’s thoughts started cutting through to his head, gosh, he HOPED they were just going down the hallway! He didn’t want anybody to see him, the head honcho, getting quite literally dog-walked by his employees, and not when he had the biggest hard-on he’d had in ages.
The tiled slid against his slacks, thereby his knees, as he crawled along. This was humiliating, why had he agreed to this again..? Oh right, he hadn’t! Tenna growled and stopped, only getting dragged along for maybe a minute or two before he finally maneuvered himself onto his back, and went slack. Tenna was a big guy, a heavy guy, and just letting his full weight drop there on the floor like a slab of meat basically stopped the two in their tracks. Tenna growled again- maybe he should talk, the snarling didn’t help the ‘dog’ allegations!- and crossed his arms,making his disapproval clear.
The Pippin had long decided ShadowGuy to be the CRT-whisperer, and just let him take the stage. ShadowGuy stared him down, much akin to the way you would a misbehaving dog (A little on the nose, author-), and stepped on him.
Stepped on him.
Or, more accurately, dragged the sole of his foot, with no gentle force, down the underside of his erection, and watched as Tenna let out a high whine that no doubt somebody heard from their room. ShadowGuy frowned and pressed harder, an uncomfortable pressure on Tenna’s stomach as the heel of ShadowGuy’s shoe pressed down harder, digging into his cock through his clothing. He whimpered lowly, squirming as he tried to get away because by the knight that hurt , but all that achieved was make his shadowy offender press down harder, and drag his heel on his hard-on until Tenna finally said something.
“A-Alright! Alright, i g-hh-i GET IT! St-sttoop doing that, i-ill be- ill be good!” Tenna gasped out, quickly sitting up the second their heel let up on his cock. “That hurt..” Tenna grumbled, yelping as he felt his leash get tugged again, sending him flying to the floor. He got onto his hands and knees, his screen all red despite the scowl on it. He let them walk him to the end of the hall, grumbling as they finally, finally undid that stupid collar and that knight-forsaken leash. He huffed and got up, storming right back to his office, and slamming the door behind him, leaving the two recruits.. Confused.
But Tenna had to admit, the forms made.. A lot more sense after that. Though still stupidly complicated, he got them mostly done.
Maybe he had needed that walk.