“You can’t have him!” Was the first thing Golf Ball heard when she woke up. The sound didn’t come from her room so she didn’t want to waste her time. It was 2:49 AM anyway. The moment she closed her eyes her best friend, Tennis Ball, came over to wake her up. At 2:49 now 2:50 AM.
“Golf Ball, come over here!” He whispered as he wrote something on the notebook next to him.
“It’s too early to be doing this stuff,” she sighed tiredly. Golf Ball sat next to him, in front of an open window. She looked down. A group of people that looked to the amount of people required to make a full TPOT team or even more. They were arguing about something. Something Golf Ball couldn’t understand well. “You eight, could you-” would be interrupted with Tennis Ball covering her mouth slightly and shushing her.
“You’re not taking it away!” Naily Cried.
“It?” Nickel responded.
“Well, it can have multiple pronouns!” Price Tag commented
“Guys, Guys, let’s not worry about that right now,” Book chimed in. “Naily, sweetheart, it isn't really the time for this yet.” She walked closer. “Listen, most people are sleeping and-”
“Shut up!” Naily’s scream shocked everyone.
Tears started flowing from her eyes and a Teardrop who was about to enter the hotel turned their head, walked back over to Naily, and attempted to take what she was apparently holding. She hissed at them in response. Teardrop tried to yank the item from Naily’s legs. After pulling it a few times she was able to figure out what it exactly looked like.
It was an average looking teddy bear. An average brown color and the cottenette texture that most bears have. But it had an off color glow to it. Teddy bears can’t glow and Teardrop knew that. If only Teardrop knew that Naily was about to bite her. The piercing bite felt like fire on Teardrop’s wet skin. The bite felt so hard that she accidentally pulled the stuffed item into her own hands. Knowing the chances she had she pushed Naily onto the yellow grass with her foot and started rushing to the hotel.
Just not following behind her. The last person who entered the hotel was Pillow who was standing over Naily. She watched her squirm around instead of actually helping her.
“Look at the little thing on the ground,” she scoffed.
Although Naily is stuck in the ground, it looked like she was having a child tantrum. She kicked both of her legs in the air in an attempt to stand up. In a few minutes it would’ve only been her on the ground alone.
There was shock in Golf Ball’s eyes while she watched all of that. The amount of things happening woke her up completely.
“I want to learn more,” she whispered. The room was silent.
“Well goodnight GB!” Tennis ball said.
“We can’t just sleep yet!”
It was at least a day after the incident. The nerd duo were in the hotel sitting at a table. Golf Ball was reading a paper on said table. The paper had notes on what happened the night before. Tennis ball whistled as he tried to think of something to say.
“So Golf Ball, how are the notes going?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Golf Ball answered, with sternness in her voice.
“We can’t do the research without the bear!”
“Who has it then?”
“I don’t know…”
“Are you just going to answer every question with ‘I don’t know’?” TB questioned.
“No.”
Bomby sat on the edge of Naily’s bed while she slept. She’s been fainting randomly since the last couple of days, usually on elevated places like decks or chairs. The only time she wouldn’t do this is either when she had the bear on her or she was in her room. But that probably only because her stack of stuffed animals are there, including her mega sized might-be-possessed teddy bear. The same one that’s ear is currently in her mouth and will not get tugged out even if you tried.
The door opened quickly and Price Tag carefully entered the room holding a familiar yellow rabbit cat looking thing. They dropped it anyway, the thing chanting “Pika Pika!” as it fell. After watching the item fall from their grasp, Price Tag dragged it over to where Bomby and Naily were, blabbering in excitement as they did. “You guys will not believe what I found at the mall!” they held the thing up closer. Bomby covered Naily’s ears.
“Oh, sorry! But look!” They squeezed the small plush and it made a noise.
“Pika…chu!~” it said. “And I got it at the mall!” Price Tag squealed.
“Shhh, she’s sleeping,” Bomby whispered, patting Naily’s head.
“Right, sorry,” Price Tag replied.
The little ball was still writing down notes to her mysteries.
“So anything else you saw before you woke me up?” She asked.
She directly stared at her partner’s eyes and waited for him to respond.
“No Golf Ball, just those.” TB sighed.
“Ah-” Golf Ball looked at her computer with notes like:
“When did you type this?” Tennis ball asked.
“Yesterday.” Golf Ball replied.
Tennis Ball sighed and said: “You need more organization tips.”
A table colored blue and items that weren’t a part of the main attraction on top of it. Teardrop felt like it was ruined by random trinkets and junk. She wasn’t too mad about it but she knew that one of the teams already found another place for their stuff besides this table and the fucking ground. She spent the past 30 minutes removing said junk from the table but it was always put back on. When she heard this voice she already felt like she knew who it was.
“Hello Teardrop,” the Pillow said. “How are we doing?”
Teardrop just stared at the her. She somehow still remembered what Pillow said about her, it was the reason most of the cast thought fast arm movement meant not caring.
“It seems like you aren’t responding so you’re completely fine!” Pillow smiles.
She then starts undoing all of Teardrop’s process by putting everything back on the table in a neat, organized mess. TD moved her hands in any way she could so Pillow stopped.
Pillow looks at her with a confused look. “If you don’t actually care why are you wasting your time cleaning it off repeatedly?” She asked.
Teardrop realizes that she couldn’t convince Pillow of anything and stomps away in disappointment.
Just Not decided to go out and get more stuff early, also to hopefully return the possessed bear as well. The same bear that is being dragged by Naily’s foot. Half of the team were whispering on how to take it away from her and the other half were distracting her from the fact they are planning on that.
“I don't really get why we couldn’t just trade stuff for this?” Cake asked. “You’re good at trading, right Price Tag?”
Price Tag thought for a few seconds. “Well, nobody would really want trash from the garbage bin so..?”
“Economics, yawn,” Naily said. She adjusted the way she was holding the bear so she wouldn't accidentally step on it.
“You could’ve said it in a way that was less..Pillow like?” Price Tag said.
“Where is Pillow?”
“I want ice cream,” Naily said.
“Great idea, let’s go get ice cream!” Cake suggests. The three walk a bit faster in a different direction from the rest of the group.
The nearest ice cream parlor was on the upper floor so it would take a while to get there without complaints, and even longer now that Naily stopped walking.
“OMF can we go to the arcade?” She yelled.
A small shiny coin attempted to open a bottle. Since he couldn’t do it with just his legs he restored to using his mouth.
“Nickel, that’s germs,” Book said, she took a sip of her own drink.
“We aren’t only here to fulfill your drinking addiction right?” Bomby asked.
“Addiction?” Book takes another sip. “I don’t have an addiction…” She said as she then chugged the entire drink down in an instant.
Nickel, spitting out the bottle cap of his said: “Woah, that’s a lot!” He attempted to do the same and almost choked on it.
“So I have a plan,” Book said with pride.
“Is it drinking?” The bomb commented.
“No,” Book stared at him with slight annoyance, though she still had a slight smile on her face. “Anyway I was thinking we would steal it, put it in a local toy store, and hope some child buys it!” She somehow did not realize that was probably what happened.
The other two look at her and then at each other. “Yeah let’s do that,” Nickel muttered and he started running, still with the bottle in hand. The other two followed.
After a long evening of playing games and buying stuff that they didn't need, the three armless creatures started making their way back home. One made a harsh sigh in exhaustion.
“Where even is the car?” Price Tag asked.
“They left us and took it with them,” Cake replied. He thought of a reason. “or they're stuck in liquified candy…”
Price tag looked at him in confusion. “What…?”
Cake realized something. “Oh! Book did it once, now whenever I feel abandoned I think of the person being stuck in something sweet as well!” All the other one would do is stare as if Cake said something inappropriate or weird.
“Oh umm, they could also be stuck in traffic…” Price Tag’s expression relaxed from their weirded-out look. “Oh, okay…”
Suddenly the tag got attacked by a vicious creature. It wasn’t a bear or a wolf but a nail. She scratched their face like a cat would when it’s angry. Some of them even poked through Price tag’s skin. They screamed in absolute pain as tiny bits of them were torn off their face. Their tears would ‘assist’ the process as it would damage their skin. Their legs tried to push Naily off of them but everytime they think they’ll escape, Naily digs deeper in. Cake also tries to separate the two by pulling the shaft with one of his legs.
“Naily…stop that!” He said through clenched teeth.
Just one really hard tug on the Nail’s body immediately caused more injury to not just Price tag but also Cake and herself. She, in overwhelming fear and instinct, pushes herself into Cake. When he gets himself off her, his face starts bleeding to high extremes.
Sobbing, he says, “What are you doing?” He walks up to Naily. “Why are you doing this!!” He kicks her with much effort. Naily yelps in pain.
Price Tag was a few miles away now. All they could see was a vibrant green glow that seemed to be coming from Naily’s eyes. Cake let out piercing screams that made the Tag take a few more sudden glances. It looked like Naily was slowly eating him. One last blood curdling scream came out from Cake. Then there was silence. Aside from Price Tag’s heavy breathing there was only silence.
But they felt that they weren’t alone. Maybe it’s the other Just Not members, or it’s. No, don’t look back. That will slow them down. A car almost started driving past Price Tag before it stopped. When the car door opened, a few people were running out of it. One of them even fell.
“Oh my word! Taggy, what happened to you?” Book asked. She sat in front of them, carefully wiping dirt and other minuscule things off them.
Someone’s footsteps were slowly heard, yet they were quick. Once the figure was seen it started going toward the two. The dictionary held Price tag in her arms and started running.
Book said, “We’ll be back, take care of…that one you two!”
Nickel looked at her in shock. “How?” He asked. The car door closed. “Book, how!?” The car drove off.
Neither of them spoke during the car ride. That was until they heard something explode. Price tag quickly got up.
“Are you okay there?” Book asked them.
Price tag would struggle to get any words other than “Y-Yeah…” out. They also seemed to struggle with breathing.
“I think you should just rest,” Book whispered. Price tag put their head back on the seat.
The car suddenly stopped. The two looked in front of them and Naily was there.