How convenient.

How terribly FUCKING convenient.

Wow, another corrupt object managed to worm its way in? And it just so happens to want to sing a song too? Golly gee, it's just the darndest thing! They must all be friends with the same ideas then. This song was even longer than last time, from the looks of the script. Roy didn't even act like he cared. The younger two caught on fairly fast. Perhaps one instance of this was strange enough to believe but two times in a row? No, this was intentional torment. But it wasn't like they could do anything about it.

They waited in the room, their chairs nicely coordinated around the television that probably didn't use to be there. It was cold and there was an annoying ticking sound. The children's heads swam and they hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as last time.

"Come on guys, quit mucking around. We only have five minutes until our show's on." What a strange line to start off with, he though to himself.

"That's not enough time!"

"There's always time for a song."

Why was he nailed to the wall? HOW was he nailed to the wall. Had he always been there?

"What- who is that?" That certainly wasn't in the script but Red couldn't help himself. He didn't look how the kid had expected.

The trio glanced between themselves awkwardly as the object started a strange dance. He looked like he was having fun at least?

"Time is a tool you can put on the wall or wear it on your rizd. The past is far behind us. The future doesn't exist."

That was a lot of rapid fire things that just happened. The object grabbed Yellow's arm before darting away, then he made the wall... shift? And now their favorite picture was gone. They liked that picture so much; they were actually smiling in it.

"Oh."

"What's the time?" Yellow interrupted on beat.

"It's quarter to nine! Time to have a bath." The water was freezing cold. Also WHY ARE WE IN A BATHTUB?

"What do you mean? We're already clean?"

The object pulled a scrubber out of nowhere and scraped it against Yellow until his skin scabbed and blood dripped into the tub. "Scrub scrub scrub til the water's brown." The object's face faltered for the slightest of seconds.

"Time is a ruler to measure the day, it doesn't go backwards, only one way. Watch it go round like a merry go round, going so fast like a merry go round."

The tall object smiled to himself, strategically cleared his throat, and burst into operatic singing as the room faded into space. "LET'S GO ON A JOURNEY, A JOURNEY THROUGH ALL TIME! A TIME THAT'S CHANGING ALL THE TIME, IT'S TIME TO GO T E!"

Red held back a snort at the object's voice crack and lifted up a schedule that suddenly appeared in his hand, which he was certain he didn't make appear. "But we don't really want to, we're going to miss our show." Uh, he wasn't ever a very good singer...

The object whipped his head around, still grinning ear to ear, but looking like he was restraining a scream. "Don't be stupid friends, come on, it's time to go!"

He sucked in his breath and spat out a burst of lyrics as the four of them traipsed through a weirdly flat village into a forest. Which was strange because the object seemed to share the lyrics with the villagers, but perhaps he was simply controlling them?

"Time is old, like a Victorian time."

"With cobbles and clay and speaking in rhymes." "With cobbles and chimneys, a simpler time." "With cobbles and sawdust and batteries and slime!"

Yellow ripped a tree in half as he moved on to his own lyrics. "The tree that is old has circles inside!" The object visibly reeled at the display of strength and quickly dragged the boy to a much more rotten creature. "The tree that is older has shriveled and died."

Duck tossed and apple around in his hands—"The apple that's fresh is ripe to the core!"—before it sprouted a face and melted out of his hands. "But I rot over time and I'm not anymore!"

Red didn't even have time to look at his brother's disgusted face before they were all forcibly spun around to look at the sky. "Time can be told by the moon or the sun-" and there goes their vision "-but time flies fast when you're having fun."

Duck found himself playing a card game and two seconds later he saw a gloved hand karate chop his house of cards. He looked up into the object's face. He looked infuriated but it didn't seem real. He seemed WAY too happy for an angry person. "There's a time and a place for mucking around!" Duck felt a pin stab through his shirt. "Like birthdays!"

"And camping."

"I'm friends with my dad."

Roy contributed absolutely nothing to the conversation, which was expected. It was more surprising that he showed up at all. The object seemed shocked too, much to Red's bewilderment. Crap, what was the next line? "And then what happened after the... olden days?"

Oh, back in space I guess. "Time went new, got old like history. Stuff from the past went into a mystery!"

"An old man died."

"But look a computer! Everything's cool-" the object put on a pair of sunglasses which would be endearing if not for whatever horrible thing could happen at any moment "-IT'S THE FUTURE!"

Red and Duck felt something right on their head and found that they couldn't move their arms. Oh god no was this gonna be another instance of- oh wait they were just strapped in a chair. That's... not much better.

"Time is now, the future anew, and look at all the wonderful things you can do! Like gadgets and gizmos and email addresses."

"My dad is a- a- com- a computer." Yellow didn't know why he was struggling so much with that line but looking at his dad made his throat dry up. He couldn't put his finger on why.

The object crawled out of the computer screen and shouted, "Look at the time!"

"It's quarter to eight, there's fish on my plate!"

"It's twenty past day, there's fish on my tray!"

"It's eleven to twelve, there's fish in the bath." Oh, that's not sanitary, he thought. Also WHY AM I IN THE BATH AGAIN.

"It's nine thirty. There's fish everywhere." For a split second, Red could've sworn he saw someone watching him in the window. Now was not the time to hallucinate. "F- fish everywhere."

Well at least they were back in the room? Ugh, the last one hadn't had so much damn traveling. The object rested his hand on his hip, who did he think he was? Some sassy bastard? "Now you can see the importance of time. It helps us make pizzer-" what "-and keeps things in line."

"But where did it start?" "And when will it stop?"

"Time is important and I am a clock."

What?

"If we run out of time, then where does it go?" "Is time even real, does anyone know?"

Duck was actually looking forward to this part because it meant he got to show off how smart he was. "Well maybe time's just a construct of human perception: an illusion created by-"

The object started making a weird beeping noise. Christ, he was a clock but he wasn't a fucking alarm! It got louder and louder and Duck readied himself for an attack. Strangely enough though, the man approached Yellow instead and screeched at him until his ears bled. Before either of them could get up to help, the object was already spinning the sky in the window.

"Sunrise, sunset, night and day. The changing seasons, the smell of hay. Look at your hair grow, isn't it strange? How time makes your appearance change."

Red felt a pang in his heart and suddenly his scalp felt weird. He ran his fingers through his hair and saw a graying sheen. Duck flinched and coughed up a chunk of red SOMETHING, and his left eye and right hand really hurt. Yellow pulled a mirror up to his face that happened to appear next to him. And it melted. His face melted.

"AAAAGH!"

Red pulled out a chunk of his head. Duck's eyes started falling out his sockets and his hands skin was disintegrating.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

Yellow tried to take a look at their attacker as he found himself collapsing out of his chair. He looked so... happy. His whole body screamed in agony as it melted off his skeleton. The boy's vision grew black and for a small and infinite moment, he felt nothing at all.

Their ears strained in the dark tunnel. Someone was saying something about running out of time.

Then they woke up back in their chairs.

...

"Okay, so we're all agreeing that we definitely almost died there, right?" Duck's voice wavered as he rocked back and forth in his chair. It was hours later and they still hadn't left the room. Red paced back and forth across the floor. His face wasn't anxious or angry or anything that the other two could read. It was just blank.

"I- I don't think we ALMOST died..." muttered Yellow. The other part of his statement needn't be said. He buried his hands in his overall pockets and stood up nervously.

Red paused his pacing to look at the other two. Why were they so calm about this? Why was HE so calm about this?! Why couldn't he feel anything? He wanted to feel something, he wanted to be angry that this happened again. That it was WORSE this time around. But he couldn't.

Maybe he just couldn't comprehend the horror of it all. Maybe it was better that he didn't. After all, if he could, who knows how far gone he might become. Red raised his hand to his chin and crossed his other arm. His eyes felt heavy. Maybe this wasn't so bad. After all, nothing permanently bad had happened. Even if they did actually die, they came back.

He was just making excuses for why he wasn't feeling anything.

He hated it. It reminded him of his worst days when he was younger. When they didn't have to worry about maniacal objects, his worst days were full of emptiness and nothing. With the horror of the first incident, at least he felt something.

He'd get over it. He had to.

Red realized he was biting his lip hard enough to bleed and he released his tension. Duck moved from rocking his chair to kicking his legs, before also standing up. They had to leave the room eventually right?

...

They stayed in the room for the night. Even though it was the room they "died" in, it still somehow felt safer than being in the rest of the house.

Red gazed at the smallest chair in the room and something stirred in his heart.

Why didn't his soul hurt. Was he meant to be like this? Any words in his throat died, it was all just gibberish now. He wouldn't make it. He had to make it. To be there for them. He wasn't angry. He wasn't scared. He wasn't anything. That was the best way to be okay.

He picked up the chair and screamed as he slammed it against the floor, wood splintering everywhere. He let his hands drop the legs and blew his hair out of his face, even though he knew it would just fall right back. Whatever, he didn't care. Even when he broke it he didn't feel anything. That was his last ditch effort to see if this was the best option. It really was. He'd accepted it the night they spent in this room. He'd just have to curl in on himself and not feel anything if he wanted to survive this. He could probably teach the other two how to be empty too. If that was for the best.

Red walked out the door, leaving his brothers to wake up on their own. He wasn't sure how they slept through his outburst though.

Duck woke up a few minutes later. He looked at his hands. They'd been clenched so tightly that there were fingernail stab marks in them.

Yellow woke up an hour later and cleaned up the splintered wood. He wanted the place to be clean. And he didn't want anyone to get in trouble for it.

...

Roy was so very elated. Everything had worked perfectly this time! MORE than perfectly! He'd been sure to keep an eye on Tony during the song; he couldn't trust someone like that with his kids. And he was right. The bastard had nearly offed all three of them at once. But he had surprising control of his powers, so it seemed Roy worried for nothing.

If he could put the notorious Tony the Talking Clock under his thumb, then perhaps he could aim even higher. Roy could only imagine the kind of power a god or spirit could have in his world.

In fact, he had a very particular spirit in mind.

First though, he needed some money.