After that Underdog was on dead air. Lewis was too scared to talk to him, so for the rest of the day the only sounds of the cabin were the strange array of 60s to 90s songs that played on his radio.
After The Lady Loves Me Lewis decided the day was long enough already, and peacefully resigned to Underdog's room. He didn't seem to notice. Lewis could hardly process all that he'd said. It was so much. It was so heavy. His mind almost crossed the thought of how does he live like this before he remembered he didn't. He tried to die. Awful. Awful.
He flipped onto his stomach. Did Polly know all that about him? Surely, right? He fell asleep sooner than he would've liked.
Next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by none other than the very excited face of Underdog. Lewis groaned, lifting himself up on his arms, only one eye open to look at him. Underdog just nodded his head toward the door.
After flopping back down dramatically and rolling up, Lewis stood, rubbing his eyes. Underdog grabbed his arm, quickly leading him outside. It was gray. Underdog quickly hopped onto his car's hood, to the roof of the car, to the roof of the cabin, then climbed to the very top and stared up. Lewis sighed. It was too early for this nonsense.
For a bit he just stared up at Underdog waiting for him to tell him what he was thinking. He never did. Groaning a bit, Lewis nervously made his way up to the roof. The car was parked sideways against it, so it wasn't hard, but the thought of an unprotected drop several feet above hard, very solid ground was scary. Of course Underdog wasn't scared. He used to fly.
Lewis got the awful thought of if he pushed Underdog off, would something break? How much had losing his powers destroyed his body, exactly?
Sitting on the first piece of roof he got to, he shook his head at that thought. The current thought had to be what was Underdog doing, not that. He crawled up closer, and took a spot next to him, trying to look at the exact spot Underdog was.
They were silent for a long time. Lewis almost convinced himself to look at Underdog, but he couldn't. Not after yesterday.
Suddenly, just when Lewis was starting to fall back asleep on the roof, the sky started to become pink. Then yellow. Then orange. Then red. The gray still taking up most of the sky turned into a nice, soft, blue. Soon after that the great white ball of the sun started to perk up over the trees. A bird started singing. The clouds were becoming a nice black and pastel orange. Lewis started to feel more at peace there than he had before.
He looked up to see Underdog staring at him through the corner of his eye, smiling. His foot was hiked up on the roof and his elbow rested comfortably on his knee, which held his head up. He looked more tired than ever, but at the same time looked happier than ever.
Underdog leaned back, putting his foot down, closing his eyes. He deeply inhaled, opening his eyes as he exhaled, looking at the sunrise.
"One of the only good things, living out here," he said softly, "Manhattan all the lights block everything."
Lewis only hummed in agreement. He was still too awestruck by how peaceful this scene was. Like something out of a movie, he thought.
"My mom used to come out here every morning and just write about what the sunrise was like and how it made her feel. She'd wake us up by opening the front door just as loudly as she could, scared my dad half to death," he chuckled.
"I usually hear my mom's alarm in the morning. It's hard rock. It works." Lewis replied, finally looking at him.
Underdog laughed a bit, "She like rock?"
"Absolutely not! That's why it wakes her up, because it's very loud and it's so awful that she just has to get up to turn it off!" They both laughed at that.
After a bit more silence, Underdog spoke again, "What about your dad, he like it?"
"Oh I don't… I don't have one."
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that, Lewis."
"No, no I mean that like-!" he placed his arms together, looking off, "My mom's a lesbian."
"Oh! How heteronormative of me, I'm sorry!"
Lewis laughed a bit, "I mean… I guess I have one but… not like my mom will tell me who he is."
"That's fair," said Underdog, voice calm and quiet, more than it had been.
It then went back to silence. The sky was moderately warm-colored by that point, blue just starting to creep in. The clouds had dispersed, but where still there.
"Remember the other night where I promised we'd talk about cartoons the next morning, and then we never did?" asked Underdog, no longer looking at Lewis.
"Yeah," Lewis shrugged, kicking his legs.
"Well… what do you wanna know?"
"...did you like it?" he asked, quietly.
Underdog chuckled a bit, "It was fine."
"Were you even around to see it?"
"Sure, I was in New York in the nineties!"
"It came out in the nineties?" He looked up and off for a minute, "It sure did, didn't it?" he murmured, remembering all the signals that said it came out then.
"Hey, it's not that old."
"I watch shows from the 60s!"
Underdog laughed, "What!"
"Get Smart!"
"Get Smart!" Underdog repeated, more astonished than loud. He hummed a moment. "I used to know a guy who sounded exactly like Don Adams, and it was his normal voice, not an impression. He was in a cartoon of yours."
Lewis stared excitedly up at him, beaming.
Underdog smiled, chuckling. "Tennessee Tuxedo. He was a neat guy."
"Is he still… alive?" asked Lewis, softly.
He laughed more heartily, "He's been avoiding death already for thirty years, the afterlife's too scared to take him!"
Lewis laughed a bit himself. That name sounded familiar, something about jumping out of a planes and a play about Plymouth Rock and putting your best friend in a dress and him rocking it and having way too fancy of a signature.
"Our shows co-existed for most of their lives. I mean, we never interacted when doing our voicework, not on set. I'd certainly catch him on his lunch break occasionally, he was a great guy."
"Doesn't that show have more characters?"
"Sure, but I didn't know them half as well," he shrugged, "Chumley was large and quiet. I was kinda scared of him. Yak was too, but he talked a bit more and proved less of a danger. He was dating Baldy and, quite frankly, what a role model Baldy was."
"You're a superhero," giggled Lewis.
"Baldy was a transman who felt comfortable enough to be feminine and be open about it, he is great. He's worn dresses in that show before!" his voice was full of admiration.
Lewis smiled. He was so glad Underdog had more friends besides Polly.
"There's a bad part too."
"Oh no."
He tilted his head, sighing heavily, "1985, the government decided it would be a good idea to put not 'pet' animals like us into zoos, to torture them mentally, for human's entertainment. You know prisons? Imagine prisons with a viewing center."
"Oh god that's…" his voice softened into a whimper.
Underdog shrugged, "They didn't get very far. One in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, they didn't work because the inhabitants led too much of a rebellion- keepers came and went in weeks."
"Did Tennessee rebel?"
"Of course," he laughed a bit, "He and his friends went through more, peaceful, pranky, 'can't pin to a single person' rebellion. Any physical fighters got caught and called rabid and got shot, so that went out fast."
"They couldn't shoot everyone who fought, could they?"
"Only the ones who didn't outrun them. I don't know if Jerboa was in any of the duel episodes, but Jerboa fought physically. He was a kangaroo rat, so he went fast. And he was very small, so he hid well. You leave fast enough and you hide long enough whoever's chasing you will stop caring."
Lewis felt surprised, even though he knew he shouldn't. He fought crime, and once you figure out one way to do something right people copy. Underdog probably used it when his first shoplifting attempts went wrong.
"They killed the real Tiger Tornado. Jerboa got shot in his arm and ribs but he survived. He got transferred to Manhattan two years in as a punishment, and Megapolis Manhattan had an underground doctoral service going. Got his rib bullet removed."
"What about his arm?"
"It wasn't causing any harm so they left it in. When they disbanded he got it rechecked out, just in case, you know? They got closed down in 1990. Us 'pet' animals started rebelling too, in 87, government only made a move then," his voice became more sarcastic as he went on, "Two years inside rebellion, three inside and outside… Not even that hard to close them down, two locations, fire the keepers, call a meeting, tell them to leave." He sighed, rolling his eyes.
That sounded awful. Lewis could barely say anything, just stared at his feet, happiness gone.
"Well…" said Lewis, softly, "I'm glad they survived and that something brought light to it."
Underdog smiled, looking at him again, "You always have such a positive outlook."
Lewis was a bit surprised. Underdog, complimenting him? Wow.
"Anyway," Underdog smiled, "There's more real-based cartoons with happier origins. King and Odie. They were cool. I never knew them, not personally, but their show was nice. More exaggerated. Biggie wasn't that evil or abusive… Itchy was definitely 4-f, but he had a good husband."
"I don't think I've seen that one," he said quietly, "But I'm interested in anything that has queer representation in it."
Underdog nodded, "If I remember right, Biggie and Itchy work for the king of their country now. Itchy's brother was the king, cartoon exaggerated their rivalry. Klondike Kat, is Tom and Jerry, Go Go Gophers is more historical fiction, didn't happen but may as well have. Tooter Turtle I never knew if they were true or not, probably not, at least not as magical. And I knew the Hunter."
"The Hunter?" Lewis said, excitedly, "Horris is my best friend! I didn't know his uncle had a show!"
Underdog just laughed, happily. Legitimately happily. Lewis started laughing too.
They were laughing and talking on the roof until the sky decided to stay blue. Underdog seemed more relaxed, and more importantly, more happy, than he had in the past days. Whether it was finally talking to someone who shares your interest after twenty years or getting loads of fresh air Lewis didn't know, but he felt just as great.
The Underdog got silent, happily humming and still smiling.
"What's wrong?" asked Lewis, afraid to set him off.
"I told you the story of how I got my powers, and the place is only a short walk away so… Thought maybe we could get some good exercise, go explore that."
Lewis' eyes lit up. "Like- now?!" He got louder.
"I mean, sure!" He laughed a bit, jumping off the roof, landing perfectly on his legs, though dangerously close to the algae-covered pond.
Lewis opted for the safer, yet probably more confusing and painful, way of getting down via car.
He was absolutely ecstatic! Underdog was happy! This would be perfect.
"You didn't happen to bring a flashlight, did you?" Underdog asked, stretching and yawning.
"No."
"Time to bring out the good ole save children from not dying skills again." He chuckled softly, Lewis quietly laughing too.