CHAPTER 12

At this point the rebrand had been put into full ignition. Though seemingly average on the outside, character was something the remaining actors had lacked, as at this point it had only been provided through the direction of Jacob himself due to his own faults leading him in this direction.

Despite all the people that had been eliminated, one just managed to slip through the cracks considering it'd been somebody both Jacob and Sammy lacked to remember.

Considering Mugman hadn't had an episode in years, he'd been sort of out of loop in terms of matters within the company, but that didn't mean he wasn't observing from the outside, however. Ever since the rebrand, he noticed a distinct shift in quality, and a shift in the characters personalities, as well. To describe the dialogue, one could put it as this distinct lyric: "Never get to say much, Never get to talk. Tell us a little bit, but not too much."

Mugman felt he'd been silent for far too long about everything that was happening before his eyes while his own series was dormant. Of course, the popularity of another franchise bearing his name had overshadowed his indubitably mundane series upon a simple Google search, but up to this point with the disappearances of the actors and the strange shift in content had started raising an eyebrow of his. Mugman's own show had always been in a periodical state of limbo, one that's been explained better than I could ever summarize it, but this recent string of events had stuck out to be particularly odd to him.

What was going on at the company? This was something he wanted to figure out. Of course, Mugman wasn't legally certified to drive considering his singular arm (He was never a fan of the two armed clone Jacob had come up with before regretting it), so he took the time to walk all the way to HorseFolder studios and confront Jacob in his office.

Mugman knocked at Jacob's office door, and was greeted by Jacob's musty, smug, neckbearded face smiling down on him. "Ah, Mugman!" Jacob greeted him, "I certainly wasn't expecting you here." This was the truth, as he expected him to be dead along with everybody else, but it only made sense Sammy had forgotten about him too, as per pretty much everyone else who'd been following the HorseFolder brand.

"Hey Jacob, it's me, Mugman!" Mugman enthusiastically greeted himself to Jacob, but unbeknownst to Mugman, Jacob had already absolutely dreaded Mugman's existence, and hearing this catchphrase coined in the original theme song had made his eye twitch, but he kept calm.

Jacob sat at his desk ever so definitely eager to hear what Mugman wanted to tell him, "So, what brings you here this fine evening?"

"Um, well, it's just that I've noticed your recent rebrand lately and it sure is something, but something I've also noticed is that, all those people that disappeared lately, they seemed to have connections to the company, uh.. Might you have any idea what happened to them?"

On top of the already existing dread towards Mugman's presence, Jacob was not pleased at all that Mugman was catching onto him. After pausing for a second in contemplation, an absolutely crooked smile grew upon jacob's face.

Jacob clasped his hands together, "Ah! Mugman! I've got bright plans for you and this company! Come with me." Jacob took Mugman's hand and led him through the studio. Already Mugman had been noticing some strange sights. Nerv didn't look his typical corny way and sported the same outline and style as everyone else, as well as the fact he lacked Necky by his side, and the amount of people in the studio had dropped drastically as well due to these disappearances, and what he speculated from the outside had went on just as well on the inside too, with people saying very little or nothing at all in their scripts. He wondered if a series like Loose Ends would end up in this way too with what he'd been seeing.

"Um, you're not gonna cancel my show again, are you?" Mugman asked reluctantly.

Jacob menacingly giggled, "Oh Mugman, you don't have to worry about that where you're going!" Jacob and Mugman turned down an unfamiliar hallway, and headed down a dark, moist, cobblestone basement. They walked in pure darkness for about a minute before Jacob stopped and said "Stay put right where you are, Mugman!"

To say Mugman was confused was an understatement. He had not a clue what was going on, but before he could figure anything out, he felt a blunt WHACK in the head before promptly falling over and blacking out.

Mugman awoke to what felt like the most horrible sleep of his life. He'd been put in a bed in the same basement, except this time he'd been under a singular light bulb illuminating that specific part of the basement where the bed had sat. While bedridden, he looked down at himself and was mortified to see he'd been entirely reconstructed to look like an old man. Suddenly, a familiar sight had emerged from the darkness and greeted him at his bed.

"Hello there, Mr. Oldman!" Sammy visited Mugman, or what at one point was Mugman, by his bedside, with a bowl of soup on a tray, and promptly placed it overtop of him.

Mugman was furious, "What did you guys do to me, you freaks?!" He shouted.

"Careful sir, you might spill over your food! You don't want to hurt yourself in the condition you're in." Sammy then picked up a clipboard and looked at it in sorrow. He looked back at Mugman and said with a forced sense of positivity, "I just want to make the time you have left down here as swell as possible. Jacob wants me to visit you every now and then, so I'll see you again soon, sir!" and with that, Sammy disappeared back into the darkness.

Despite this forced positivity, Mugman could just feel something was wrong. Of course, with the fact he'd been reconstructed into an old man he knew there was something terribly wrong right off the bat, but he wanted to get to the fine details of it. He picked up the clipboard next and through the details of it, as it read almost like a hospital writeup. "Star of a popular TV show...number of incidents in my 20s...long since retired from acting? Doesn't like being reminded of it?" He then read the most egregious part of it all, "A month and a day left to live?!"

Mugman wanted to do something about this, but he couldn't. He could barely move, he felt broken. He didn't yet check under the covers, but it felt like somebody had broken his legs. He knew he couldn't make it out in 4 weeks, he was done for. Jacob turned him into an old man for his own amusement and a subtle reminder of just where he fucked up in his life, and such a subtle reminder he planned to die a slow, painful death, not quick like everybody else, as Jacob didn't hate everybody as significantly as he did Mugman.