Arc the Second: Suit Yourself
Chapter 1: No Problem Here
Hello, Ms. Librarian. Did any mail come for me? A Radio Shack ad? Wow, can I see it? Hey, are there any books that I can help put back, anything I can help sort? There's a game I've been playing, Scorched Earth, the shareware version, and I've been saving up so I can order the full version!
As soon as I stepped foot in the door, I was immediately overcome with an overbearing tiredness. I looked over at the clock again and saw it was 11:06, I just wanted to get to bed. I immediately walked up to my room, took my shoes off by the closet door, and the instant I ended up in bed, I was immediately asleep.
I immediately found myself in a big, empty warehouse, with a single spotlight above me. I looked around, and another spotlight lit up, with Tommy Wiseau standing beneath it.
“Oh hi, Johnny!” I found myself saying.
Tommy approached me through the shadows, before stopping in my spotlight and taking out a photograph of Felix sipping a cup of coffee. “This is no longer Felix,” Tommy said, pushing his sunglasses up to his face again, “this is me!”
“Johnny, I don't understand,” I said, being equally as confused as myself in this situation.
“You won't understand 'til you're older,” he replied, as he took out a silver lighter and began to burn the image of Felix.
As the image of Felix burned, it began to scream, to panic. “Help me, Ash!” it cried, only for Tommy to crush the burning image under his shoe.
“Shhh... Little man, it's alright, you're free, you don't need to pretend to be human anymore,” Tommy said to the smoldering ashes beneath his shoe.
“What the hell is happening,” I said, not feeling compelled to say it like before but just genuinely feeling lost.
“And this is you!” Tommy said.
As I looked up, I saw he was holding an image of me dressed in a light colored skirt and a rather tight-looking sweater, wearing a headband with cat ears on it. “...No,” I said, staring Tommy right in the face.
“Ah, but look closer,” he said, holding the image close to my face.
Sure enough, the girl in that ridiculous outfit was me, and she was happy about the outfit she was wearing, smiling and blushing and giving the camera, the photographer a playful look. That couldn't be me, I would never do that, is this what Tommy wants? “Or is this you?” Tommy continued, holding up a second image.
This photo was of a charred, battered corpse sitting on a ruined concrete floor. I looked up at him, in a cold sweat. “So which is it, Baker?” Tommy asked, removing his sunglasses to reveal milky white eyes that seemed to glow, “which fate do you choose?” he asked in a cacophony of voices, shouts, screeches, “Don't you like them?” they all shouted, his jaw unhinging like a snake, “I made them both myself!”
I screamed, and immediately fell from my bed. I was reassured in the moment that it all was just a dream, trying to make sense of it all but feeling I wouldn't be able to. As I got off the ground and made my bed again, I saw that my Modifier was gone from my desk. I looked around for it and started to worry. Had Ardy stolen it? It was a little past 7:00, maybe I still hadn't fully woken up yet. I figured I'd go shower, get dressed, and then look for it, and if push comes to shove, I can ask Felix.
As I headed back into my room at closer to 8:00, fully dressed, I saw my Modifier once again, this time placed carefully in front of my computer monitor. I picked it up and gave its trigger a pull, and the screen came to life. I clicked around on some various things to make sure nothing was changed, and gave a sigh of relief that everything was normal. I headed downstairs to grab a bowl of cereal, sticking my DVD of The Room back into the shelf where it belongs to avoid Tommy's piercing gaze.
I sat down at the table with a bowl of Apple Jacks, glancing outside where Ardy had been last night. He wasn't there, the shade from the surrounding trees was light enough to peer through and I returned to my bowl of cereal. Apple Jacks weren't always one of my favorites, but it's what we had, though today they seemed better than I remember. I was willing to accept that maybe they were just damn good Apple Jacks, but then I remembered Ardy's spiel about giving me a good day and how he could mess with my mind to make it happen, that immediately put me on edge. I idly finished up my cereal, washed the bowl and spoon, and put them back before heading back upstairs for a couple hours to work on animating, maybe get sidetracked and play a game or two, you never know.
I found myself slowly gazing back over to my shelved copy of The Room, back to the rather terrifying nightmare I had last night, what could it mean? Could it mean anything? Maybe it was just because last night was a bit weird, I dunno. I couldn't really work right now, I had a lot on my mind, I figured I'd go down and talk to Felix, maybe check in with Franklin and Nathan, maybe Twitch and Francisco, I dunno.
As I stepped outside, I dunno, everything seemed brighter and warmer than before, a bit nicer. Again, this had to be Ardy messing with things, right? It had to be. As I stepped into the capitol, Felix was nowhere to be seen. I sighed, walked behind his desk and as I was about to use the phone to punch in the code to open his “secret” workshop door, the computer on his desk came on, and after a moment a word document opened.
Hey, Ash! Ardy and I are in the workshop. I saw you come in through the cameras, and he helped me network my IBM and Tandy together? Isn't this neat? It's like an old adventure game! I can tell you all about it when you get down here!
He's certainly excited about his Tandy, I can tell you that. I punched in the code and watched the bookshelf slide past to reveal the stairs, and slid it shut on my way down. “Hey, Feli--”
As I came round the corner on the steps, I bumped into Ardy, who exclaimed in surprise to see me. “Hey... Ash, wasn't it? How's it been!”
“...Why are you, just, on the stairs?”
“Oh, I thought maybe you had gotten lost, I was comin' up to help ya.”
“I can help myself, Ardy.”
“Ah, come on! Don't be like this! How's your day been?”
“It's been... a day. It's been like two hours.”
“Oh, well, here, lemme just...”
Ardy backtracked down the steps, and gestured to let me pass. Felix was at his terminal, typing at an incredible pace, periodically stopping to check the Modifier he had hooked up. “Hey, Ash!” he said, catching me in his peripheral vision.
I looked over and saw he was writing some sort of code at a blinding pace. “Did you... did you come up with this all earlier, or...”
“No, playing it by ear!”
“That's awfully fast programming,” I replied.
I had no significant idea how programming worked, I'm not terribly well versed in it, I know a bit from some middle and high school classes, but Felix was typing incredibly fast, not stopping to think about what he was writing except to check the Modifier's screen. “How do you do it?” I asked.
“Oh, pardon?”
“How are you programming that quickly? Do you already know what you're going to type, or...”
“No, I'm roughing out out in my head as I go.”
“So how did you get so good?”
“Just writing a lot of scripts, I guess,” he replied.
I nodded and kept watching for a moment, before I suddenly felt cold plastic press into my back. “Think fast!” Ardy shouted as I heard a click.
I exclaimed and turned around, and he showed me a screen that was loaded with all sorts of information. “We got this stuff working on people now, too, this is kinda what I was talkin' about last night, ya know?”
“So...” I started, a bit worried, “what are you gonna do to me?”
“...Oh, nothin' much, just showin' you it exists, is all.”
“Then scan something else! Don't keep all my stuff on the screen.”
“Well, why not?” Ardy asked.
“Because it's weird, I don't want you messing!”
“You think I'd do somethin' like that to someone so specia--”
“And stop that as well, I don't like it!”
“...Jeez, temper much.”
“I... look, can I talk to Felix in private?”
“Well, wait, I--”
“Ardy, I've known Ash for over a year now, can you please respect her wishes for me? I've got some paperwork upstairs if you want to file that, or you can help me put out the new releases in the library.”
“I... fine,” Ardy said, in a cold tone, walking up the stairs backwards to keep glaring at me.
“Felix, does Ardy... scare you as much as he scares me?”
“I wouldn't say he scares me, Ash, but he still does worry me. I mean, the info I could get from his files claims he was beamed in from Diamond, Oregon, but there's nothing in that town, nothing whatsoever. But what I can say is I don't like how he talk about you, Ash, that does worry me quite a bit.”
“It's creepy as shit,” I said, “how he's always trying to call me beautiful and all that, I don't need his validation, I don't want his validation, and I've told him that!”
“Hmm, just how some people are, Ash. Try not to let it get to you, and I'll have a talk with him when I can about it.”
“He appeared in a dream I had last night. Well, kinda, he reminds me of Tommy Wiseau, and Tommy was in--”
“Tommy Wis-who?”
“Wiseau, from The Room? Writer, producer, director, one of the worst--”
“Ah, gotcha. And what did he do in your dream?”
“Well, he burned a picture of you, and then tried to get me to choose between my own death, I think, or some cutesy getup of his design, and started screaming at me, and he had Ardy's eyes and a hundred voices.”
“Yeah, I can't help you there. You didn't want to make either choice?”
“Neither one.”
“Maybe... I'm not good at this, but maybe you think he might be a bit manipulative.”
“It was his adherence to making sure I have a good day and talking about altering my mind last night, that really got to me, it feels like he thinks he can toy with me.”
“I won't let him do that, Ash, if that is what he wants. I promise. As for messing with your mind or any of that, he actually hasn't touched a Modifier at all last night nor today.”
“...Huh. Well, thanks for listening to what I had to say, Felix.”
“Any time. Where are ya headed next? I can get you a bottle of water.”
“I'll probably spend a moment in the park and go back home,” I said.
“Alright, I'll talk with Ardy, you have a good day, Ash.”
“Thanks, I--”
Maybe I was overthinking him saying “have a good day,” there was a really good chance I was overthinking it, but it still hit me. I was still worried that Ardy was messing with me, I mean he was left alone upstairs with one of Felix's computers, he might be screwing with me. I thanked Felix again and headed back upstairs, sliding the bookshelf to the side as I did. The Tandy was completely unoccupied, though I figured I'd sort through the files just to make sure. I wasn't familiar with older computers like this, but I could still check when files were modified. I backed out of Felix's message and looked through the recently edited files, but didn't find anything of note, only Felix's incoming message today. I gave another sigh of relief and headed out the door.
Now that I was a lot more certain that Ardy hadn't messed with me today, I felt I could appreciate today a little more. It was a great day, and I was looking forward to spending a moment at the park. I got to a table and sat in silence, watching the suburban fauna go about its business. I watched neighbors walk their dogs and cut their lawns, caught a glimpse of Nathan and Franklin sitting on a bench facing the lake together, and everything just seemed really pleasant.
That's when I noticed a man with black hair and a bright red suit walking by, holding what looked like a Modifier. I eyed the man suspiciously, and heavily considered walking up and asking him what he was doing. Was that rude? I didn't necessarily care, if he wasn't doing anything suspicious, then he would have no real reason to worry about me asking him. That settled it, I got up and headed down to talk to the guy at the edge of the park.
“Hey, sir,” I said, feigning ignorance.
“Hello, ma'am,” the man in the red suit said, “got a question: have you seen Twitch Fredrickson?”
“Who wants to know?” I asked.
“Don't worry about it, ma'am, just tell me: have you seen Twitch?”
“What you got there?” I asked, pointing to the decidedly Modifier-shaped object in his hand.
“Again, don't worry about it. It's a simple yes or no question.”
“...No, I haven't.”
“Oh, then have a good day.”
The man in red began walking towards the capitol again, and I quickly grabbed my phone and took a few pictures of the man. It was odd to me how he was asking for Twitch by name. I knew Twitch was definitely different from the rest of us, but that didn't justify tracking him down, at least not to me. I walked down to where Nathan and Franklin were and figured I'd ask them. “Hey, guys,” I said to them.
“Oh, hey, Ash,” Nathan replied.
“Have you seen the weird guy in red?”
“Yeah, he asked us if we'd seen Twitch. I was just working in the library with him an hour or so ago, but I didn't tell the guy that.”
“What do you think he wants with Twitch?”
“I have no clue,” Franklin said, “but it certainly cannot be good.”
“Tell me about it. Well, I'll leave you two be, see ya.”
“Bye, Ash,” they both said to me.
A moment in (around) the park was just what I needed, I felt great and ready to get back to work. Felix would deal with Ardy, hopefully Twitch was safe, and I was excited to work on animating for the rest of today. It was hard to describe the feeling, I was just kind of overcome with happiness and inner peace, it was great. I got back home, grabbed something quick from the fridge to eat, and got to work.
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