Disclaimer: If I owned TPoH I would not be writing this on . I'd be drawing comics(I don't draw) and making money from said comic(I don't make money). Also I won't spend a hundred bucks on TPoH books because overseas shipping is soooooo expensive.
Love is a queer thing; it had a habit of sneaking into relationships it had no right to be in, and leaking out of ones it actually ought to have been in. Had he been allowed to speak his humble opinion, he would have even said love is a contrary thing.
Look at the world. He should have strived to save the world. It was every man's dream, wasn't it, that he would save the world he loved? Evidently not.
The world was just the tip of the iceberg. He had a list of things a normal(normal as things went, anyway, not that there was any normal in this place) being would find perfectly lovable, yet he thought of very unkindly. Cats. The world. Toy soldiers. The world. Jokes he wasn't the one making. Children. The world.
But his Heroes. Rather unique, oftentimes misled, sometimes outright evil, all of them a failed project... he had no choice but to love them. Every time he had loved them, and every time he vowed never to love again; but he did always fall in love all too easily. Too easily, in fact. One of these days he really should trade away his love. Surely they'd be worth something.
"-B... RGB?" His Hero this time around seemed to possess quite the knack for precise timing only found in theaters. Fitting, perhaps, since he had looked for an artistic person. Creative. Bright. Always adapting to new things.
Now, where was he? RGB looked down at his hero, prompting her to speak more now that she had his attention. "Uh, well, the Fears... they are Fears, right? Right. Behind us again."
One smashed vial and a fifteen-minute dash in absolute terror later, the pair were breathing wheezy gasps through their respective equivalent of a respiratory system.
"Ohhhh... I vote for never seeing those darned things again." Hero moaned between lungfuls of air. "In fact, I'd vote for never seeing this world again if I had a say. God, why did I agree to this?"
RGB winced. "Be careful what you wish for... Tricky things they are, wishes. They have a habit of coming true in the most karmatic fashion."
"So 'never see this world again' is probably going to come true by me losing my sight, is what you're saying?"
"Probably more than sight, but yes. Possibly."
"Super."
At least she hasn't run away screaming, RGB mused. At least his Hero this time adapted surprisingly quickly to the fact that she wasn't going anywhere but forwards. Resilient one, she was. But then again theater people were usually a special bunch.
"Come along, Hero. We mustn't dawdle, and the Fields of Hesitation is up ahead. That is never the place to hesitate." "How ironic." "I know." On that happy note, RGB and his Hero set out again.
If there was anything the Fields of Hesitation was good for, it was Doubts. So, so many Doubts. RGB pulled away at least a dozen of them from Hero, flung some from their path, and was becoming more tempted to burn them alive by the second.
"Gah-! Why, you darned leeches... if I had a sole for every one of you, I'd be able to buy a pipe organ, I swear!" Hero was evidently nowhere near growing fond of them, as well. In a moment of rarely-displayed anger, she kicked at the gloppy concept attempting to cling to her boots.
RGB raised his brows- not that he had brows, only antennas, but the message should be clear enough, no?- but declined to comment. Apparently, Hero was made of stronger stuff than he assumed. He merely repeated his earlier warning about the Fields and led the way.
For a while, time passed rather peacefully. Sure, there were Doubts, but between Hero and RGB they didn't have too much trouble. Although the number really was alarming. Perhaps Hero had problems of her own she wasn't speaking about? RGB had often found that insecure but intelligent heroes tended to attract Doubts and Fears. And just when he had thought he'd gotten a bold one, too...
Screech!
"'S that? Another Fear?" Hero frowned, a wide crease appearing on her usually smooth forehead. Screech! Screech! Screech! The unearthly racket was borderline deafening by now. "No." RGB shook his head. "Another emotion thingy?" "No." "Untuned B flat major clarinet that's letting out microtones?" "I have no idea what you're talking about, and no!" "Then why do those ungodly sounds make sense to me?!" "What?!"
Hero gasped. "She's in trouble!" And ran... right towards the source of the screams.
RGB felt like screaming, himself. He had no idea Hero was this much of an idiot, much less reckless, foolhardy, gut-driven... but he knew he would follow her sooner or later. Not when he hadn't abandoned her, yet. Not when she was still his hero.
With a long-suffering groan, he made himself run into the fray.
It wasn't hard to follow Hero's trail. Fast as she was, there was no denying the fact that the Field was, well... a field. Footsteps were quite easy to find when they left a dent in the grass, after all. RGB only had to run about three minutes before the landscape gradually smoothed out. They were nearing the Sea.
He was rather surprised to find that there were not one, but two beings Hero was confronted with. Those kinds of meetings rarely happened nowadays. Most beings chose to mingle in the Market, but here they were. His addition to the impromptu(but thankfully violence-less, yet) meeting made a party of four.
"I keep telling you, I'm not the one who ensnared you!" The first person, male if the voice matched his gender, said in exasperation. "I was on the far side of the road when you got stuck. The only reason I came close to you was to help you, not carry you off somewhere!"
"Lies! Rotten lies!" The second figure wailed. A mixture of candy floss, a flamingo, and knives, the pink birdlike being was hopelessly stuck to a tree. Her coating seemed to be half-melted where it met the trunk. She kept on screeching. "It's always a trap, a trap... especially WHEN RGB IS NEAR!"
"... Hello to you too, Julienne." RGB moaned into the following silence. "Nice of you to pin all the attention on me... but then again, I did always have a habit of drawing them. Hm."
Julienne let out another deafening squawk. "I WON'T HAVE A WORD OF IT! A trap, I say!"
"Why would I want to trap you?!"
Hero, having been silent throughout the verbal exchange in spite of having been the one to come here voluntarily, put up her hand. This action, RGB supposed, was due to her relatively short height compared to the other three participants in the conversation.
"Yes, Hero?" He asked, idly fingering a spare vial of nightmares. He did remember the Fears from two hours prior, after all. That meant he remembered how Hero had pointed them out by grabbing his attention. Not the most easily fading of memories.
But Hero wasn't opting for his attention this time. Rather, she slowly approached the still-stuck bird; at least, RGB sighed internally, she stayed out of the reach of those knives. It simply wouldn't do to get impaled.
"Hi, Julienne. That's your name, right? Was the day hot?" She inquired. Julienne half-flapped a wing in exasperation. "Like you wouldn't believe! So I sat down under this tree, because it provided some shade. And the next thing I know I'm stuck to it! Blasphemous!"
Hero tipped her head to one side before breaking into a small smile. The smile grew larger, and larger, until it could officially be called a grin... and it wasn't that Hero was laughing at Julienne, no. It was just the way she was- absolutely fantastic, no? Heroes these days, ugh.- herself. She had an infectious grin, that woman did. If RGB had attempted to smile like that, Julienne would have stuffed his vents with candy floss.
"All right, I'm going to move behind you now. Just don't cut me to Hero chops, m'kay?" Julienne protested some more but didn't actually act on her threats as Hero carried out her words. Which was good, because some of those threats were very much into creative uses of candy canes and broken bones. Ouch.
"Mm. Right. Nice and easy... oh, by the way, I like your voice." Hero began to pick apart strands of sugar from the tree bark while Julienne was too flustered to answer. RGB, realizing her intent, moved forward to help. He was immediately put off by the very sharp knife swung his way.
The mostly-silent man chuckled, and RGB's attention was drawn to him in an instant. They had not met yet, he was positive. No being he knew of had a prism for a head, although it could have been traded away in the market... but as if he'd have nothing but his head to barter with. Say, how tall was the guy? Six feet? More? Surely a few inches could have made excellent currency.
And apparently, the prism head had noticed the gaze, for he returned it curiously. Could prism faces even convey emotions as complex as curiosity? RGB had antennas that acted like eyebrows, and color test bars that were his mouth; but he was mostly featureless. Prisms were even more so.
"I don't believe we've met yet?" Prism mirrored RGB's previous thoughts, putting them into words. His head seemed to glow brighter as he spoke. RGB was immediately drawn to his voice, at least, when he wasn't shouting- firm, smooth, cool. And a man of manner as well! He decided they would get along quite fine, provided that the object head did not attempt extreme violence on his life.
Realizing that a) he had yet to give an answer, and b) the silence would get awkward if he just stood there staring at the Prism, RGB shrugged in response. "Not that I can remember," he began cheerfully, "but I'd gladly make an acquaintance! RGB's the name, my... hm. Does 'man' work for you?"
The other person, no, man now that he nodded, introduced himself as Magnus. "Sterling name. Say, where were you going before...?" RGB waved vaguely at the mess that was Julienne and Hero, the former now partly freed thanks to the latter.
Magnus put up a hand to his chin. "I've been roaming without a destination in mind... but the Market, I think. I ran out of some things. And you, RGB?"
"Well, that's-"
"Aaaaaaaand you're free!" Hero whooped. "That wasn't half bad, was it, Julienne? I told you you could do it!" The plump woman grinned at the now-free flamingo monster. RGB sincerely hoped that she wouldn't try(and succeed) to murder him now.
Julienne narrowed her eyes, giving her wings an experimental flap. "Hmph! Not bad... Hero. So you're the one RGB's chosen this time? Well, he's gotten lucky, I say!" She began to beat her wings harder, faster; soon she was hovering a good five feet aboveground.
"Ha! Now, this has been absolutely terrible, I must get out!" She crowed. "Farewell, monsters, Hero... and let us never see each other again!" A sharp peck on RGB's head and a more gentle one on Hero's later she was gone.
"Dear heavens, can you believe that bird...! Oh, where was I? Market also. Would you mind accompanying us?" RGB answered Magnus' question from before the interruption and asked a new one in a single dialogue.
Magnus shrugged. "It is fine by me. Although, I must ask you as well, Hero. Do you mind if I tag along for a bit?" Hero smiled her bright smile before accepting. "Company is always welcome! I mean, I didn't catch your name or anything, but I think we'll be fine."
RGB groaned and introduced Magnus to Hero.
The trio set out at a reasonable pace, entertaining themselves with small talk to pass the time. Hero told them about the various instruments she could play; RGB cracked jokes; Magnus proved to be both an excellent listener and talker, asking thoughtful questions at the right time and sharing tales of his journey. Really, it was a fine way to save the world.
...
The world evidently did not want to be saved. For, if RGB's senses were up to date, it was approaching nightfall... and they were still a bit away from the Sea of Limen. At his suggestion, they settled down for the night. Sleep was above heroism on the priority list, after all.
"- and remember, no dreaming near me." RGB warned as he made himself comfortable. Hero merely said "M'right," before bidding goodnight and drifting off to sleep.
"...Goodnight, Hero." He stretched out and noticed that Magnus was still upright. "Is something up, Magnus?" He asked, frowning.
Magnus shook his head. "Nothing life-threatening, at the moment. Just curious is all." RGB gestured for him to go on. Magnus obliged, weighing his words carefully.
"Well... you've been doing this for a long time, yes? Finding heroes" "Mm. Very long. Why?" "And you've not succeeded once?" "If that's how you decide to put it..." "Oh, no, no! I didn't mean that." He shook his head and raised his palms up to indicate he meant no harm.
RGB hadn't noticed the shift, but he had hauled himself up into a sitting position as well. He frowned slightly. He wasn't used to unintentional movements.
The pair sat for a while, watching the sun crawl over the horizon, wondering what to say next. Finally, Magnus broke the deafening silence with an apology. "I'm sorry. It's a habit of mine... trying to make sense of things, you know? But I think I know now. I won't ask questions on the subject."
"Wait, what? Know what?" RGB demanded, but the Prism-headed man had already lied down. Of course, he could have shaken him awake... but he didn't really want to bother that much.
"Why does everyone ignore what I have to say..." he grumbled before he himself settled down to sleep. He thought he heard something as he drifted off, but then again wasn't he always hearing things?
"... That you care for them, still."
Hey, people! Thanks for reading the first of five-ish chapters that are gonna make up the story. Absolutely crappy, I know, but please bear in mind that a) this was written at 4 am, and b) English isn't my first language. Did you like it? Hate it? Did someone even read it? Let me know what you think, please!
