Chapter Text
—
It was so terribly cold, and you were bloody and bruised beyond belief. You were barely sure if you were dead or alive at this point. Your legs haven gone numb a long time ago, being left with nothing but the soft snowfall trickling onto your frost bitten skin.
And just when you thought you’d finally give in and join the earth, once again warmth began to envelop you, a hot breath fanning against your face, a soft mechanical whir following it.
“Lost in a lonely place dear Lightner?”
The voice which the breath came from is husky and barely above a whisper, and you start to wonder if you’ve finally lost it.
a loud rustling happens behind you, a loud thud to the side of you, and suddenly you feel something pull you up into what you can only assume is some sort of princess carry.
“Sweet, Sweet, Lightner what are we to do with you.”The creature mumbles as it walks steadily, making sure to not wake your wounds, and whoever this is seems to have a knack for talking as it continues to blab on about something you can’t even begin to make out from beyond your throbbing headache.
You feel yourself tuck into the warmth of your presumed savior, feeling oddly safe for someone on the brink of death and in the arms of a complete stranger.
And just as suddenly as you’d fallen into the whispers of a slumber in the arms of your possible savior you feel yourself get laid onto a soft, sort of strange surface.
“You’ve lost quite a lot of blood dear Lightner, we simply must do something about that, no?”
It seems to make a mental joke to itself before remembering you aren’t in any state to respond or even open your eyes. The creature sighs twice before leaving the room as you once again fall into a deep slumber.
It Returns after a few short moments to aid the wounds of your now unconscious form with the precision of a well renowned doctor, or at least it likes to think that.
It takes extra time to apply gauze gingerly to certain areas, and looks away when tending to more private spots, its is a gentleman after all.
——
Once you awaken you find yourself on something Incredibly soft and silky. Rustling around a few times before you finally gain some small amount of consciousness, your eyes opening for the first time in what felt like forever. It takes awhile for your eyes to adjust to the new environment, eyes scouring a very flashy—bedroom? atleast that’s what you assume this place is.
The first thing that draws your attention is the hand outstretched beside you—attached to a TV screen, which seems to be attached to person? You are utterly lost and don’t quite understand what’s going on.
There wasn’t really any light within the room besides a slight purple tint of moonlight filtering in from a window located somewhere within the room.
And as if on que the tv head lights up with a dim purple ish light, a soft smile illuminating on the TVs features. It seems to be looking at you with relief? Atleast you think so, it doesn’t have eyes from what you can tell.
You must’ve been visibly zoning out as the TV tilts its head to the side like a confused dog before speaking up.
“Hello little Lightner, feeling any better?”
The TV, or better phrased man? Seems to be waiting very patiently for you to adjust to your surroundings as he patiently sits and watches you, not dissimilar to the way you might watch a new born cat.
“Uh- m” Your voice cracks painfully as you try to cough out a response. “Uh- sorry, I uhm… yea? A little better.” Your voice is gravely but coherent enough for the TV to nod thoughtfully.
“I’m sure you’re very confused, I would be too! But it’s okay I can help explain the situation to you.” The TV gleams with barely concealed excitement, seemingly a very energetic creature normally. You mentally start to wonder if it is trying to appear calmer as to not scare you? “Oh right! before I explain, do you remember anything at all? about how you got here? your wounds? Where you are currently?” The creature rambles out too many questions for you to handle at once like a proud spokesperson, but realizes and stops mid sentence to let you respond once realizing.
“Uh, I remember being in the snow? I think I was attacked by someone or…something? and I really don’t get what’s going on beyond that.” You feel a little stiff trying to remember what exactly happened to you but the TV once again just knowingly smiles at you.
“Well that does sum up the most important bits! I found you out in the snow, and half alive mind you! I almost lost my head when I saw you out there, but I picked you up and brought you here to tend to your wounds.” The TV does a dramatic little pose to show how surprised he was to find you in the snow, softly chuckling at his own joke before continuing. “But dear Lightner before we re-dress your wounds I must ask what is your name? I’ve been a terrible host to not ask till now!” The creature leans forward out of his chair like an excited puppy waiting for a response.
You blink a few times taken aback by the enthusiasm of the creature infront of you.
“Y/N… my names Y/N.” You almost sound unsure at first, making sure to double down, almost as if you were trying to convince yourself whether that really was your name or not, you must be really wounded, and probably sick you surmise.
“Y/N? What a wonderful name! I’m Mr. (Ant) Tenna but please just call me Tenna, it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you!” The TV man, or Tenna to be more specific is practically beaming with excitement from finding out something as simple as your name and you feel yourself chortle a bit at the sight. Mr. Tenna acts like he’s just come fresh out of a cartoon, and to be honest it does help make you feel a morsel better.
“Pleasure, and uhm… thank you for saving me. I’m a little confused as to where I am though? And how I got here?” You scratch at your neck nervously, pulling yourself further up the satin bed.
Tenna once again shines you a bright smile, his hands lying calmly on his knees.
“Well of course! Anyone would be a little startled to end up here without any prior notice.” Tenna makes another big hand gesture to emphasize his point. “This is the dark world, a place separate from what you’re used to, and as you’ve seen it’s also very, very, dangerous and not to be taken lightly. But thankfully I was able to find you before any terrible scoundrel could! the place you’re in currently is my home, but more specifically a separate building connected to the TV time headquarters.” Tennas voice is similar to a tour guides as he explains the inner workings of this ‘scary’ new world to you.
You look up at him with a furrowed brow, mind caught on the whole headquarters thing.
“TV time headquarters?” You ask, not entirely sure if you heard him right.
“Yes! I’m a TV show host, and not to toot my own horn but I’m pretty dang famous around these parts!” Tennas screen glows a few notches brighter at the mention of his alleged fame, going on to explain how he built it all from the ground up using the most cutting edge technology.
“On the note of my headquarters, I think it would be a good idea if you stick close to me from now on. I mean there’s no safer place than by my side of course!” Tenna seems to get a little nervous towards the latter half of that statement, but you decide to glaze over it.
“That seems pretty reasonable yea, but uhm how would that work? You have a job to do right?”
Tenna thinks for a second, comically stroking the bottom part of screen in place of a beard.
practically getting a light bulb over his head once he finished his ‘extreme’ thinking.
“Well why don’t you just follow me around for now? We can find something for you to do a another time can’t we?”
Tenna is surprisingly considerate, and after chatting for a while you find yourself growing to like the comical TV man.
Tenna also decides after a while longer of chatting that he should leave you to your own devices while he finds you something to change into, the clothes you were currently wearing were matted with blood and ruined beyond repair after all.
And he was far too much of a gentleman to change them while you were unconscious so he had worked around the scraps in the “most pristine respectful way possible” when he was dressing your wounds according to Tenna. Which surprisingly enough were practically perfect now minus a few scratches and bruises here and there, you guessed that maybe the Dark world had better medicine?
———
You take a minute longer to look around the room, it’s cozy, self centered sure, but cozy nonetheless.
Trophies line the shelves, some of them are even shaped like Tenna, they remind you of tiny action figures in that way. The walls are also decorated in a similar fashion with glow-in-the-dark stars lining the walls and all kinds of TV posters from shows and movies you’ve never heard of before, this whole experience feels a lot like inter dimensional cable.
You’d lulled yourself into a half comatose state as you assessed the room, only stopping once you hear three polite little knocks at the door.
“You can come in.” You answer, still a little weak but it has spirit.
Tenna bucks in and suddenly it comes to your attention just how tall he really is. Tenna walks in and smiles gently at you as he places the pile of clothes he has bunched in his arms onto the same chair he sat on a little while ago.
“I’m afraid this is all I’ve got in Lightner size. I’ve only really got my own merch laying around, I’m typically too busy to stay home much after all.”
Tenna scratches his neck apologetically before leaving once again to give you space to change, a soft thud sounding as he closes the door.
Your head turns to the the chair where a slightly over sized white dress shirt, a pair of grey slacks, and a somewhat cute red cardigan decorated with yellow accents and with ‘TV time’
written on the front kinda like a name tag, all laying in a neatly folded pile, and for what it is it looks decently wearable. Your hands absentmindedly run across the soft fabrics before you finally put them on.
—
“Yup definitely oversized” you comment as you check yourself out by the mirror conveniently placed by Tennas wardrobe.
With a slight adjustment of your cardigans sleeves you pull open the ridiculously big door and head down through the many halls of Tennas colossally sized house in hopes of finding the large TV host.
You poke your head into all kinds of rooms, ranging from theatre themed, to weird bed rooms and kitchens. And just when your hand reaches to turn the knob of a door with golden accents you feel two hands wrap around your midriff.
“There you are dear Lightner! Be careful roaming around you might get lost, I was worried you’d been taken by a monster or something haha!”
Tennas arms wrap around you further in a snake like grip as he picks you up and places you in the opposite direction. He seems to be rather protective of this room you note, or maybe he genuinely was concerned for you.
Nonetheless Tenna pulls at your arm as he drags you out of his lavish home to what you can only assume is the illustrious ‘TV headquarters’.
——