Chapter Text
The night was young when Tenna had walked into the Colour Cafe with all the gusto of a man who still had a job. Head held high and followed by a small entourage of friendly faces, he had found a seat and been promptly bombarded with drinks and snacks and people’s time. It had been lively! It had been wonderful! It had been guaranteed not to last.
As the night had worn on, and one by one the cafe patrons began to dwindle in number, Tenna had been left at the table he’d taken for himself with a bit of a problem. His plan had been to be the last one out of the cafe so that, as the swatchlings closed up shop around him, Tenna could get some friendly words in with his old acquaintance Swatch. The whole night, Swatch had been quiet, reserved, polite but taking little to no initiative in offering things to customers. Tenna had wanted to fix that.
Instead, he was trapped at his table by an addison, a little yellow one, who just would not stop talking about the day’s sales as he chugged drink after drink. It was infuriating, and it only grew more so when it seemed like the addison noticed Tenna’s ire and then fed into it. The little prick started going on about all these ‘new’ and ‘improved’ means of selling, why Castle Town was so ‘NEO’ and ‘advanced’ in its customer base, how he could up his sponsors by adding a little ‘advanced tech’ into the mix.
Had addisons always been this annoying? Tenna didn’t remember. All he knew was that he wanted to strangle the little shit, but he refrained from doing so in public for his image’s sake. Not strangling the addison to death had Tenna sat with a tense smile and a hand wrapped tightly around his (certainly in the double digits) drink.
And then, the addison had the gall to start talking about Tenna himself, as the last of the remaining dwindlers filtered out of the cafe. “Can you confirm for me, sir? Are you really as old as that house you came from?”
He said it with his usual smarmy little smile, and Tenna felt the (empty, thankfully) glass in his grip crack. “What! Haha. Does that mean!”
The little yellow addison didn’t back down. “I mean I had heard that the Dreemurr house has been on that hill for centuries. You know, real antique stuff up there, if you dug in the ground you might find settler trinkets! And that when the current owners bought it, the house came with you. You know, ‘cause you’re old, too?”
“I,” Tenna growled, “am NOT. Old. I’m Classic. You ever want to WORK with me, you’ll learn that.”
The addison made to roll his head (in lieu of rolling his eyes, seemingly glued shut as they were, the pretentious shit), and opened his mouth to reply. He didn’t get a chance to, though, as another voice piped up.
“Hey, now, sonny, what’s the problem with bein’ old?” someone squawked.
Tenna turned to look behind himself and found a short (well, actually fairly average-sized, if he was being real), slightly bowed old green turtle monster there, leaning his weight onto a small hooked cane. He wore a little brown beret that still managed to hide the majority of his head (though not his glaringly pink eyebrows, which made Tenna wonder if those were natural), with a matching dark duster and waistcoat suit underneath. The monster was wrinkled, clearly aged in the way only Lightners could get… but also clearly a Darkner. Ah, wait, Tenna thought he’d heard about this guy - something to do with a beloved man’s ashes sprung to life in the darkness of the Fountain, the faithfully happy recreation of his son’s memories.
With a tight smile over his shoulder, Tenna cleared his throat as he heard the shuffling of his partner across the table adjust himself to try and see who was speaking. “Er, nothing, sir, just that I don’t need to be reminded of my… my… obsolescence, thank you!”
The old man snorted. “Obsolescence my left foot, who cares!”
Tenna spluttered. “Wh- bu- m-me! I care!”
“Pfft,” the old man scoffed, “you won’t when ya get as old as me, that’s for sure! Once yer kickin’ up the same amount of daisies I do, age becomes a badge of honour, not somethin’ ta hide away with all that glitz and glamour you got up in your Hollywood head!”
Tenna felt his electron gun fire a few too many electrons per pixel for a moment, a heart-wrenching feeling of ‘oh fuck I’m shorting out’ ripping through him until he realised he was simply blushing. Ugh. How annoying. His teeth grinded together, his screen tightening under the pressure.
“Well,” Tenna said, his head feeling very hot, “what BIG words coming from someone who hasn’t said his age! How old even are you, old-timer?”
The old man gave a roaring laugh, then said, “Well shoot, how right you are! What’s my date to beat?”
“Look for yourself!” said Tenna.
Feeling overly confident in himself, Tenna tilted his head forward and pushed the side of it towards the old turtle. As he did so, he tapped against a small label there, which he knew damn well held his production date (which, in the past, he’d tried very hard to hide). The old man fumbled with a pair of glasses for a moment, then gave a hum.
“Now look at that,” the old man said with amusement in his voice, a gentle hand placed upon Tenna’s side like he was steadying a tumbling piece of glasswork, “1976, huh? Aren’t you a piece of history!”
Urgh, even if it (vaguely) sounded like a compliment from the old coot, Tenna loathed that tonight was apparently the night to call him old - he yanked himself back from the old man and snapped, “And yourself?!”
The old man adjusted his lapels as he said with pride, “Sonny, I was born in the grand ol’ yesteryear of 1952, thank you very much!”
If Tenna could have blinked, he would have done so. Instead, he settled for his mouth making an ‘o’ shape on his display, a funny warm fuzzy feeling filling his internals. “No kidding? Finally, there’s someone older than me around here!”
The old man laughed his uproarious tones, leaned back as he did so. “That’s right! And don’t you forget it, there, sonny-boy! I’m old! But don’t worry too much, you’ll get there eventually!”
Another bout of laughter accompanied Tenna’s feeling like he’d had a bucket of ice dumped down his back - light above, so long as everything in him stayed functional (and that was a pretty solid if), then he would, wouldn’t he? What a terrifying thought.
Then the old man sobered up, seemingly realising that Tenna wasn’t laughing with him. “Say now, speakin’ of age. You wouldn’t happen to have one o’ them programs runnin’ on ya, where the one detective comes and bumbles around, befuddlin’ the guy who the audience already knows is the killer, before catching them up on their lies right at the end?”
Tenna paused in his partial moping and thought about that. “Er… ‘COLUMBO’?”
The old man snapped his fingers and pointed at Tenna with a grin. “Yeah, that’s the one! Only oldies like us would know the gold in that show! You wouldn’t happen to still have that one runnin’?”
Tenna lit up a little, his screen glowing with a slightly clearer picture. “Sure, that one’s easy enough to stage! There’s usually a channel broadcasting reruns of it; same with M*A*S*H!”
“Ah! MASH!” the old man looked like he was swooning with the way he wobbled on his cane, and Tenna stuck out a hand just in case he fell over, but he kept his balance. “Now that one brings back memories with the kids! Not that it was all that appropriate for ‘em!”
The old man guffawed, and Tenna found he couldn’t help but smile along, his previous problem left frustrated on the other side of the table where he sat. And, well… he could stay frustrated for all Tenna cared, the old man was a much more entertaining conversation partner. Certainly wasn’t making Tenna feel like he was in the trash dump already.
“Say,” said the old man suddenly, “I could really use a good conversation or twenty with people nearer to my own age, you know? Chatting with all these youngins, it’s heartenin’ to see the future so bright… but sometimes I feel like they jus’ can’t fully relate to me, or I them.”
“Yes!” Tenna exclaimed. “I know what you mean! Some people around here just don’t appreciate good, classic television!!”
“An’ it’s good to get yer mind out of the past every once in a while,” the old man said with a smirk. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
Tenna felt a blush tinge his screen again as he nodded. “Er, yes, of course, of course.”
“But there’s no one around to jus’ indulge me every once in a while!” the old man finished off positively. “‘Cause every once in a while you jus’ get a bit of a cravin’ for a little nostalgia!”
With an emphatic nod, Tenna said, “Yes! Old man, I think you and I could become quite fast friends, but I don’t think I caught your name?”
“Oh, don’t worry about not knowin’ it yet, Mr. Tenna,” the old man laughed - ah, well, that was slightly embarrassing. “I think I was on some late night host shows back in my haydays, but I don’t blame you for not rememberin’ - those interviews were years ‘n years ago! The name’s Boom, Gerson Boom. But you, sonny, you can call me Gerson.”
“Eh-hehe,” Tenna coughed out a chuckle (dear god how could he have forgotten that face??? As soon as he said his name it had clicked for Tenna - this man had been FAMOUS, how the hell had he forgotten????), then took Gerson’s hand when he proffered it; the problem on the other side had left by now. “Yes, well. Ahem. Um, would- would you care for a seat, Mr- er, Gerson?”
“Don’t mind if I do!” Gerson said, and he hopped nimbly from his place before Tenna to the seat just to Tenna’s right, with a grace that shocked the old TV. “Now that the bar’s empty, we’ve gotta start makin’ our own party, right? What’s being stoppered up in that big ol’ head of yours, inflatin’ it so huge?”
“Inflating-!? Oh, hold on,” Tenna raised a finger, and suddenly he was around two feet shorter, still taller than everyone in the room but now able to be talked to with much less neck craning. “Better?”
Gerson gave a little whistle. “Well aren’t you the showman?”
“I certainly try to be!” Tenna preened.
“Does that work for shape, too?”
“No, of course not! Though no one ever seems to notice my claws when I first meet them.”
“Boy howdy!” Gerson crowed as Tenna flexed one hand to showcase the sharp tips of his fingers. “No kiddin’! Neat little tricks you’ve got up your sleeves, you got any more?”
Tenna peered at Gerson, and he saw a funny glint in the old man’s eyes that made him laugh, the most joyful he’d been all evening as his head tilted back. “Take me to dinner first, there, geezer! Gotta keep some of my secrets so you keep coming back, don’t I?”
“Ah, you got me,” Gerson chuckled as he nudged an elbow into Tenna’s arm. “Now with a personality as big as yours, how come you kept the company I found you with, hmm? Shouldn’t you be swimmin’ in a sea a’ friends tryin’ to work with you rather than scammers tryin’ to rip you off?”
“I started the night out with… acquaintances!” Tenna defended, avoiding using the word ‘friend’ - did he really have any right using it if he wasn’t sticking around long enough to really befriend anyone in Castle Town? “I-I just, I had made plans with myself, I was gonna, um…” he sighed, “before I got stuck with that prick of an addison, I was going to wait until I was the last one out, and chat a little with Swatch. And then meet up with some others outside, I don’t know, I didn’t think this would take as long as it did!”
Gerson eyeballed Tenna, then seemed to decide he wouldn’t press the issue; instead, he gestured at Tenna’s hand, where the (very shattered, now) glass was still clutched. “Why don’t we both top up a little here, get some juice flowin’, and find somethin’ a little easier to talk about, what say you?”
Tenna looked at his hand, opened his fist and watched the shards of glass tumble out of his grip. From the corner of his screen, he saw Gerson eye a particularly large shard as it fell towards him.
“Sure,” Tenna said, “could use another drink!”
Swatch must have been listening in on the conversation, as he swooped up between the two with a platter of beverages and a cloth with which to swipe up the broken glass. Though he kept his air of professionality, Swatch did still give Tenna a bit of a look, and Tenna sheepishly muttered to him that he would pay for the glass once they were done. It seemed to be enough to satisfy the old bird, as he gracefully stepped away and back to the bar once everything else was back in place.
“Quick service,” Gerson mused, as he analysed the funky concoction in his hands - it was a clear green, with foam overflowing from the top that had drawn onto it in cocoa little hammer shapes, “real good-quality speed! Plus, even if he ain’t much of a talker, that Swatch sure knows how to imply a story through subtext! Excitin’.”
“Yes,” Tenna chuckled, his own new glass filled almost solely with battery acid (Queen’s favourite, though the unfiltered flavour wasn’t entirely to Tenna’s more subtle tastes), “that’s Swatch for you. You know, years ago, he used to have a…” Swatch glared at Tenna from across the room, so Tenna quieted down, pretended like he wasn’t going to finish that sentence, then whispered at Gerson, “(used to have a mohawk!)”
Gerson gave an appropriately subdued gasp, and grinned. “No kiddin’. Though I’m curious, how would you happen to know that, you gossip-monger, you?”
“Swatch and I happen to go way back!” Tenna declared. “‘Course, he and I weren’t the closest of pals back then, but we’ve certainly known each other for a while. Same with Queen; same with most of Cyber City. The kids brought back Queen to the house, for homework you know - she was a rental, not that the LIBRARBY’s gonna miss her much now that she’s here. Oh, that’s rude of me to say…”
Tenna eyed his drink, then slammed it back, placing the glass carefully onto the table. Gerson whooped, then chomped through the foam so he could start on his own.
“I just mean,” Tenna said, feeling the slurring on his tongue more than any buzzing that might have come from the acid, “I just mean… she’s useful! And so connected to the internet! But, but people go to the LIBRARBY to use the big chunky computers in there, a rental laptop, she’s just getting forgotten in there. Much better for her here, you know, where she can network with people. Much better.”
Gerson nodded along, quiet until he reached the bottom of his own glass. “I’m sure, I’m sure! Boy howdy, this stuff’s good, hey?”
Swatch was suddenly next to the pair of old men again, whisking away their glasses as he gave a gentle smile to Gerson. “I’m glad you think so, sir, we pride ourselves in bringing absolute satisfaction to all customers. Let me know if there’s anything I can change about your order to make it better. Here you two are.”
He set down brand new drinks (how did he know Tenna was about to ask for another round?) and vanished back to the bar. Gerson laughed as Tenna stared at the head bartender - since when could Swatch move so fast?
“So far I’m as pleased as a clam about to be boiled!” Gerson said. “Speakin’ of, though- oh, what a non-sequitur. No, let’s say, ‘change of topic’, much better, doncha think?”
“H-huh?” Tenna asked, trying to keep up with the conversation - he should not have downed that last drink so fast, now the world was spinning.
“Don’t worry about it,” Gerson hummed, then he was smiling again. “How’s the away-from-home life been treatin’ you, anyhow, old boy?”
Tenna groaned into his cup as he pulled from it. “Don’t call me old. Please don’t call me old.”
Gerson scoffed next to him. “I thought we went over this already. But fine, answer my question.”
The edge of the bottom of the glass rolled along the table surface as Tenna thought for a moment, before he said, “It suits me… fine. Oh, but!” Suddenly excitement flooded Tenna’s body, and he found himself throwing back this drink too, eager as he was to tell Gerson the news. “A bunch of the Darkners from my Fountain, mostly shadowguys I think, they’ve all taken to building up a place of their own - it’s right next to this place, actually! They’ve got a soundstage set up, the Lightners will come in every once in a while to jam out on the stage and perfect rhythm minigames, and Mike’s in there, with his room and whathaveyou.”
“Mike?” Gerson asked.
“Mike!” Tenna cried, a finger up in the air above his head. “My best man! My ✨Number One✨! Always listening, always recording, always keeps me on-task! …Or well, he did, back when there were tasks. Now I think he just records…?”
Tenna slumped back down onto the table; magically, another drink was before him. He tilted his screen towards Gerson, making an awful grinding sound as the bottom of his casing slid against the wooden tabletop. It seemed like Gerson was thinking.
“Records… all the time?” Gerson asked. “Every moment?”
“Mmmmm-hm!” Tenna said. “Supposed to! Captures… captures everything I say, my biggest fan…!” Tenna blushed. “Aha, though, I know that’s not a high bar to pass anymore.”
“Have you thought about puttin’ on another show?” Gerson asked, and Tenna watched him put the rim of his glass to his lips and then… not drink it. Huh, how strange. If he’d only wanted one drink he could have told Swatch that… whatever, it wasn’t Tenna’s problem. “Sounds like you’re missin’ the limelight!”
Gerson laughed, and yet Tenna didn’t feel like that last sentence was a dig. Coming from anyone else’s mouth, he might have thought it was, but from this old man? It was strange, but Tenna felt incredibly comfortable with him. And he’d only just met him!
After that realisation, time seemed to pass much faster for Tenna. The conversation was easy, smooth, and only smoother still as Tenna allowed himself to nurse his drinks after the last one went down a little too quickly. Even with just the pair of them, the cafe was filled with the pleasant ambiance of chatter and laughing, despite some of it being canned (Tenna couldn’t help it sometimes, his speakers just made noises on their own). It was like a dream, and Tenna found he very much didn’t want to wake up.
“Hoo boy!” Gerson yelped suddenly, and Tenna jumped as he whipped his head over to look at the old turtle; he had his head down and his eye practically pressed flat against something on his arm. “Look at the time, goodness! I better get on back to bed, or I won’t be seein’ no one tomorrow, gah-hah!”
Tenna took a moment to process that - oh, he was looking at his watch - oh dear, it was late! His internal clock said it was around 2 in the morning, sheesh! Had he… seriously been drinking for basically seven hours straight? Good god, if he didn’t know himself better, he’d say he had a problem; surely Gerson thought so. What a terrible showing of himself.
Still, his concerns were eased aside by the glowing smile Gerson was giving him despite it all, and he couldn’t help but smile back at the old man. “W-well then! Sounds like we should be getting going, then!”
He stood up as fast as his slightly pickled mechanicals would allow, slapping a fat tip upon the table as he did so (both as an apology to Swatch for holding him up so late and as a show of wealth to no one in particular, all the addisons gone hours ago). Gerson gave it no reaction, and Tenna didn’t say anything about it, and the pair of them swaggered out of the front doors of the cafe, their hearts a whole lot lighter. Out front, Gerson turned back towards Tenna, nearly making the TV crash into him as he stumbled off of the front step.
“I have to say,” Gerson said, “I had myself one lovely evenin’, tonight, and I hope you did as well. You certainly know how to hold yer liquor!”
“Aha, haha, yes, well,” Tenna pulled a little on his collar, “n-not my usual- I don’t usually get so out of sorts while out in public, haha…”
“Hardly public when it’s jus’ ourselves and the bartender,” Gerson pointed out, “so I think you got out of it scott-free anyhow. How ‘bout next week, eh? Shocked I hadn’t seen ya around town since I arrived, all the people ‘round here talk about you like you hung the stars! Which, judgin’ by how tall you are…”
“Oh, you flirt❤!” Tenna laughed, a hand swinging down dangerously close to Gerson’s face as he tried to wave off his words, though the old man didn’t seem to mind. “Next week sounds lovely! I’ll be glad to make a regular acquaintance of someone older than me, finally!”
Something seemed to dim in the old man’s features, the sight of which made Tenna’s heart plummet. “Ah, sure, sure. Though, we’re still jus’ on the acquaintances level? I thought we made rather fine friends, you and I!”
“I-I, I mean, I…” Tenna fumbled, desperately trying to figure out some way to salvage himself. “Um, I-I mean, y-yes, I- I loved tonight! You’re- I like you! Greatly! I’m just, I worry- I’m not- I’m not staying long, y’see.”
Gerson blinked, then cocked a brow at Tenna. “Whatcha mean by that, there, sonny?”
“M-my deal with Susie, er,” Tenna felt his face glow bright pink, and he laid a hand along one side of his screen - was he trying to hide his blush? Surely, it wasn’t working very well, he could still see the pink glow he exuded lighting up Gerson’s features. “She- I- when we met, I was… ugh. Things happened, I’m sure you’ve already- e-everyone talks about it all the time, especially when I’m not there, I’m sure, it was awful. But at the end of it, Kris and Susie, they… they still thought… they promised they wouldn’t throw me out.”
Gerson’s eyebrows raised to the brim of his cap. “Throw you out?! Now why would you think that was on yer docket?”
Tenna could feel himself shrinking, and somewhere within him a spark of fear shot through him at the thought that he’d grow so small he’d fall between the cobblestone cracks in the street. “It was awful! I was so cruel to everyone! I-I didn’t know- everyone was leaving, and I couldn’t make them stay, and then I put the kids in toy balls to try and force them to say, and then their mom, she was in danger, and- and- ohhh!”
Tenna barely refrained himself from wailing outright as both hands found his screen then up to his antenna to pull on them, trying to stop the tears that squeezed their way out of his casing. His head felt so incredibly hot all of a sudden, the world so incredibly big, every Darkner’s eyes he’d ever met boring into him and tearing him apart at the seams.
Still, Tenna jolted a little when a large hand wrapped itself around one of his shoulders. He looked up just barely over his hands to see the relatively looming figure of Gerson looking down at him with concern. Tenna hid his face again as he continued to cry, but Gerson didn’t remove his hand, and after a moment, Tenna felt like he could grow a little again, matching heights with the old turtle beside him. As the TV’s sobbing slowed, Gerson seemed to figure the pair of them could begin moving, and he directed Tenna down the street, presumably towards the castle.
“I’m-I’m sorry,” Tenna mumbled. “I’m usually… usually much better at keeping, ergh, keeping this all in…”
Gerson chuckled at that. “Well, ya have had a full night of drinkin’. I think I can give you a pass, jus’ this once.”
Tenna laughed weakly in return, a little nod shaking his world. “Yeah… yeah…”
“Let’s get back on track, yeah?” Gerson said. “What was that deal you said you made with Susie?”
“Right!” Tenna said, and he sprung up in size suddenly as both hands left his face, stretching up to the heavens. “Yes, of course! My deal with Susie- I gave dear Tori back to them, to the Lightners, and in exchange she promised she would find me someone new to take me in! Because… because Asgore isn’t home anymore, and Tori didn’t want me anymore, and Kris doesn’t need me anymore, and- and… and Asriel…”
“So you figure,” Gerson said, interrupting Tenna’s trainwrecking thoughts as the TV looked back down at him (dumping the remainder of his tears trapped on the lip of plastic against his screen onto the street below him and thankfully managing not to get any on his shoes), “that since you’ve got this deal with Susie and she’ll be movin’ you out any time now, you’ll jus’ be, what, abandonin’ any friends you might make here while you are here?”
Tenna sniffed, then looked away. “W-well, yeah. Wouldn’t you say so? ‘S not like most of them want anything to do with me anyways, not anymore.”
“I would say that that’s jus’ sad,” Gerson said bluntly, which made Tenna gasp. “Honestly, man! Keepin’ yourself from connections jus’ because you think they don’t want nothin’ to do with you? Yer your own worst enemy! Let’s fix that tonight, right now; c’mon, call me your friend, I know you want to!”
“Wh- but- but I’ll-”
“I know you’re leavin’,” Gerson interrupted, “and I still want you to call me your friend. You’re my friend, after all, so let’s make it mutual!”
“But we won’t see each other-”
“Who said that?” Gerson glanced over both shoulders like he was looking for a mysterious third party on the abandoned, darkened streets of late-night early-morning Castle Town. “Certainly not me! Maybe I have abilities you don’t know about, like all the little things I have yet to learn about you, eh, old-timer?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“C’mon, jus' once! It’ll feel freein’!”
Tenna chewed on his lip, looked anywhere but at his companion, then finally looked down to meet Gerson’s glance. The old man was looking at Tenna with his one good eye practically glowing with hope (or maybe that was just the glow of Tenna’s own screen reflected back at him in those deep golden pools), and it was all so much. The acid in his stomach, combined with the burning in his head, the exhaustion of being awake at 2 pushing 3am, the pulsing sensation in his electronics of having just cried, plus the look Gerson was giving him…
“Fine. Fine! You wanna hear it so bad?! You’re- you’re my f-, Gerson Boom! You’re- I consider you my friend, too! H-happy?!”
Gerson’s face broke into a bright grin, and he gave one curt nod. “Very.”
Tenna barely had time to react before suddenly he wasn’t walking on cobblestones anymore, and was in fact at the inner door within the courtyard of the castle. Looking back, Tenna could glimpse Castle Town still glittering a little though the portcullis on the far side of the yard. Then he looked back down at Gerson.
“H-how did you…?”
Gerson shrugged, a (likely very smug, though Tenna couldn’t really think about that right then) grin affixed to his features. “Jus’ happened to work out that way. Now, my friend, I bid you goodnight!”
Gerson turned on his heel and marched his way out of the courtyard. Tenna watched him go, a little dumbfounded, a hand against the main castle door handle without opening it just yet.
Just before he left fully, however, right at the gate, Gerson called over his shoulder, “Don’t forget! Next week, big man, we do it all again!”
And just like that, he was gone. Tenna watched the place where the old man had vanished, then finally sighed to himself. Despite his best efforts, distancing himself from practically everyone in Castle Town… someone had still managed to wriggle into his heart. Maybe that meant… he should actually take Elnina and Lanino up on their offers to have a game night, then, with a bunch of the pippins and shadowguys. Maybe it would be… good for him. While he waited.
He pushed his way into the castle, and went straight to bed.