Chapter Text
OJ had been waiting for MePhone's elimination portal to appear. After his day in jail, the two had set up a plan for how contestants would be housed in the hotel. Since eliminated contestants arrived at the hotel before the episode showing their elimination aired (being shown publically later that night), OJ would take them to where they would stay and then instruct them to stay there until the morning in order to not spoil the episode for the other residents. It was a sort of tradition for the residents to all gather in the main living room and watch the newest episode of Inanimate Insanity, eager to root on their friends as well as find out who would be joining them.
With a flash of light, the portal finally appeared, although no one immediately walked through. This was normal, depending on who had been eliminated and MePhone's mood. OJ waited paitently, watching to see who would walk through. It wasn't long before he could hear someone walking towards him. After a moment, the figure stood before OJ.
"Paintbrush!" OJ mused, "I didn't expect you to be eliminated so early." He only then noticed what they were holding, and added, "...And you brought a crab."
Paintbrush was completely silent, not even really looking at OJ. It was as if their mind was elsewhere. They were shaking slightly.
"Here," OJ continued, "Let me show you to your r-" He only then noticed Paintbrush's condition, which already in the past few seconds had worsened.
"Paintbrush..." OJ asked quietly, "Are you alright?"
At that the crab slipped from Paintbrush's hold as they broke down crying, covering their face with their hands. OJ was shocked, and unsure what to do. He had no idea what had happened, and he didn't want to upset Paintbrush more by asking. Instead, he carefully picked up the crab. He suddenly realized it was Baxter, Lightbulb's crab she had adopted as her own several weeks (and episodes) ago. OJ wondered why Paintbrush had Baxter now.
Paintbrush had started to calm themself down now, and OJ turned his attention back to them. He carefully placed a hand on their arm to get their attention. "Hey," he said cautiously. Paintbrush peeked through their fingers, sniffling as they listened to OJ continue, "Let's go to your room, alright? You can rest there."
Paintbrush wiped the tears from their face, managing to answer quietly, "Okay."
The two walked to the room with OJ leading the way.
Later that evening, it was time to watch the latest episode of Inanimate Insanity and, as they always did, everyone was piled on and around the couch, huddled in front of the TV in anticipation. It wasn't long before everyone realized that the one being eliminated was obvious; Paintbrush had accidentally destroyed everyone's paintings, and put everyone (except Suitcase, who had been the only one able to get her painting judged) up for elimination. But then something strange began to happen on screen. There was a shot of Paintbrush sitting in the Calm-Down Corner, likely by their own decision. It looked like they didn't know they were being filmed. In a few moments, Lightbulb appeared and began to chat with them. She too seemed unaware of being on camera. Lightbulb cheered Paintbrush up a bit, and Paintbrush apologized for some things they had said earlier.
"I guess I'm just used to doing things my own way. It's hard to explain..." they continued.
Lightbulb smiled. "Eh, I think I get it. I got you, g-" she stopped herself, taking notice of Paintbrush's expression.
Seconds later, the group watching back at the hotel quickly realized that this conversation was definitely not filmed with their consent. At the same time, nobody knew what to say.
"None of the above." And just like that the mystery of Paintbrush's gender was solved in a way no one expected. Some of the residents didn't even know what that meant. Once the episode was over, everyone looked around at each other. It was as if nobody knew just what to say.
Yin-Yang ran out of the room suddenly, and before anyone could question it he'd returned with a cell phone. He was typing something very quickly. Then he stood in front of the TV where everyone could see him.
"Nonbinary," Yang's voice read aloud, grabbing the group's attention. "Noting or relating to a person with a gender identity that does not fit into the male or female divisions."
They quickly switched to another tab on their phone and this time Yin's began to read, "You don’t have to understand exactly what it means to a person to be nonbinary in order to respect their identity. Some people haven’t heard a lot about nonbinary genders or have trouble understanding them, but that’s okay. The most important thing is asking a person what their identity means to them, and using their preferred name and pronouns."
"Uh," Yang started after a moment, "I don't know what Paintbrush is going to say later, but we should all do our best to respect them and their identity. I don't think Paintbrush knows that conversation was in the episode, but now that we know it would be rude to continue misgendering them. Yin added nothing.
"Paintbrush is sleeping right now," OJ added, "So I'll talk to, uh, them, in the morning. I want to make sure they know this happened before we ask about pronouns and stuff.”
Everyone agreed to this and headed to bed for the night. All they could do was wait until morning.