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AO3 Blank Slate Stories : Was he... Mike : by Kamishawe
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And now, the end is near…
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
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Finally… Finally, he would escape the curse. One way or another, the curse would be broken for everyone after the Rainbow Battle Royale tomorrow. Everyone knew it wasn't going to be as simple as fortold. He didn't care who won though, all his friends would live. It didn't matter what size he was or if the pets had to die for the curse to be broken.
Fifty years, Mike had been lost in a world not his own.
How could this world be his? He was not one of these bipedal monkeys. From the very beginning of his wakening, he was running. Hiding. Who knew what they would do to him. Hidden behind bandaged were black wiry whiskers. Cosmetics reshaped his albino white skin and black button nose. His buck teeth were concealed by dentures from back alley dentists. Even his wild, unruly hair dyed a vibrant purple was keep long enough to obscure the large pink ear bobby pinned to his head.
He was unnatural to this world.
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I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way
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Then he met Leon, Falco, Keiman, Fantasma, Lichi, Cosmo, and Oodako. He'd understood every single chirp, chitter, chirring, croak, slither, and slurp like it was his mother tongue- unlike the many strange awful sounds the bipeds created. He'd learn much from them. How their servants ran the world to their pet's favor, and the pets were at the Arcobaleno's beckoning. They explained how all their bipeds played a childish game called Mafia as an excuse to hunting prey —as if they were civilized! They'd even helped him find his true form. Before the Arcobaleno, he'd never thought about morphing. Didn't know it was even possible.
Soon, he'd scurried around the world as the mouse he truly was.
Whatever magic caused Mike to be a poorly designed mimic of the bipeds had also forced him to interact with the unruly curs of this world's subservient species. That did not make him one of them. He despised meeting and interacting with the Arcobaleno's pets. All the Arcobeleno disciplined the pets and servants when they were caught acting violent to Mike. Sun Leon misshaped and glitches every time his pet Reborn became abusive. Rain Falco constantly dive bombed and desecrated any misbehaving pet but especially his own biped, Colonnello. Even Lightning Keiman, chomped at fingers and toes. Eventually, they all got the message.
Mike was not the pets' lackey.
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Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the by way
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He wanted to go home, where ever that was. To the place his hidden wedding ring said he was a mouse with a gorgeous doe— white as snow… sparkling eyes…— was waiting for him. He'd traveled every road and chased every whisper of the other side. He played songs, scammed card sharks, and pedaled circus tricks to find a way.
Eventually he had.
Mist Fantasma was the first to explore the other side, but only for a few secs. The curse wouldn't allow for more. It was a fantastic world where animals like themselves were everywhere. Sun Cosmo, as the fastest of them, was the next through the portal. Running as fast and as far as she could before the doorway dragged her back through. Storm Lichi was the one to eventually scurry around the library looking for signs of Mike in the newspaper. Keiman searched the police station archives.
They found him on a old new cast singing the very song he remembered.
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And more, much more than this,
I did it my way
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When the dead Mafia Servants took the curse away everyone was release from the tri-ni-sette binding. In the chaos, Mike scurried away. More than that, the former Arcobaleno followed him too. A new home awaited, to the portal he'd found in a broken down theater on the other side of town.
After all, they didn't need pets and servants where they were going.
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