It took a while for our protagonists to wake up, time's a fickle thing in the mindscape. K.O waved his alter ego goodbye energetically. T.K.O only managed a small acknowledgement, too focused on his nails.
"Oh! I forgot, remember to not pluck too hard on the guitar strings!" K.O added hastily right before emerging out into the real world.
As expected, panic unfurled the moment he noticed where he was. There was still was a small moment for appreciation of the clothes he was wearing though. He was lucky enough to have chosen that day as the day he was too tired to take off his work clothes.
"Did we... accidentally do something last night?" T.K.O stared blankly at the K.O-vision in disbelief. K.O was startled by the sudden voice in his mind.
"I don't think so."
The much more scheming counterpart sighed, "K.O, think," T.K.O prompted desperately. K.O thought about it a bit more, before hanging his head in defeat. The alter was very disgruntled by the current pilot's reaction. T.K.O tried to pry K.O off the controls but the usually more submissive bodega employee refused. "Just let me be in control."
"There's no need! I can handle this, I went to scouts when I was younger." K.O turned his attention to his surroundings after handling T.K.O's temper, kind of.
T.K.O scoffs, "We went to scouts when we were younger." Emphasis on we. The vessel shrugs this off half-heartedly, now walking around with sticks in his arms. They landed near a river so K.O thought they could catch some fish. Even T.K.O was surprised by his naivety. The angsty counterpart was thinking some unquestionably vulgar thoughts at that moment.
K.O stared at his sticks, "how do you fish?" he asked T.K.O.
"Are you serious?"
The vessel nodded his head sheepishly, a hint of a blush creeping onto his face. T.K.O groaned. He didn't know how to fish too, but there are more important things as of now to focus on. T.K.O attempted to pry the control from K.O again, he relented this time.
The new pilot dropped all the sticks, much to K.O's dismay.
"Hey!"
"Oh, quit being such a baby. They're just sticks."
The former pilot huffed, "they were my sticks though, " he said with a meek pitiful voice. "They were nice sticks."
Outside, their body shuffled awkwardly. T.K.O finally sighed and takes the sticks along with him onto the treetops. K.O gasped, he forgot that T.K.O could fly (this isn't the first time). All he saw was endless foliage, well, not exactly. There seemed to be a shiny little town in the distance.
His eyes widened, "we're farther than I thought." T.K.O whispers in shock. K.O winced.
"You're mocking me, aren't you?"
"Why would I do that?"
"'Why would I do that?'" K.O repeated in a shrill voice. His alter ignored him, although he was right, and started the long fly towards civilization.
Every passing second made the small child seated comfortably inside their mind more anxious, "I can feel your bad vibes from over here," T.K.O grumbled. K.O didn't respond. "There's a music player right?"
K.O's eyes flitted around the room for a second, "Yeah?"
"Play something." The emo child said nonchalantly. K.O obeyed and flipped through the stations lazily, only stopping to hear a barely single note from every song. Finally, he got to a channel he liked. It was a soft song with sugary lyrics.
T.K.O cringed a little but secretly found the background noise comforting. He had less space in his mind to worry now. Meanwhile, K.O was drifting into a bored nap. The alter ego wondered if he'd inherited all of his worries, rendering K.O oblivious of the severity of their situation. T.K.O was jealous.