Chapter Text
(Ottawa, Canada)
“Tess?...Tess?...TESS?!” A feminine voice echoed from behind a rattling door.
A young woman, around the age of 26, sighed sadly as she opened her silver eyes, looking into a mirror that hung across the room. She had grown out her black hair to hang just around the small of her back. She was wearing a plain white shirt with a few paint splotches on it, and an old black skirt with a red stripe around it. She had light gray tights that gave you a pretty good look at her legs going down to some old white shoes.
Tess sighed as she turned away from the mirror to look at the currently awkward art canvas she had been working on.
Just the look of it almost annoyed her, made that empty, hollow feeling in her stomach more annoying. It was…kind of almost a self portrait? It had her, of course, clad in bronze gladiator uniform. Holding a silver briefcase up in her left hand, almost in triumph.
There were…markings…of other people, in various stages of the picture’s development. However, the only other currently detailed one, was an older man, he looked…very cartoonishly evil for the almost realism seen elsewhere in the painting. The type of portrayal you’d see in some type of “Anti-Police.” propaganda…ironically fitting…but…not usually her style.
Her silver eyes flickered a little in annoyance as she stared at the creation, her eyes solely focused on this cartoonishly, saturday morning villain styled police officer she’d made, before she irritably grabbed the canvas from its easel and punched a hole through it.
As if this caused a trigger, the door she had assumed she’d locked suddenly swung open…startling her as she turned to face the two occupants now in her studio.
The first was a younger woman, two years younger than her to be exact. She had long chestnut brown hair that was flowing down to her waist, and sea green eyes covered by black framed glasses. She was wearing a plain white T-shirt with an imprint of a Mr. Saturn, some creature from an old video game, that you could see through her small, light blue jacket with tight black leggings to boot.
Next to her was a pale-skinned 26-year old man with deep blue eyes. black hair in a tuft. He wore a light-gray shirt with a red skull necklace, and black long pants.
“Oh…Ally…Hunter…” Tess said, rather monotoned in her delivery.
The two looked around her rather…depressing studio, admittedly it HAD been a while since she had tidied up this area of the house since they had all started living together under one roof. She had a few cans of paint all over the place, with some stains on the floor and walls that might now be permanent additions from where smashed pictures hadn’t finished drying.
The man, Hunter, took a moment to observe the current destroyed piece, which notably only had a hole through where that other man now was.
“This again?” he asked, giving her a sympathetic look. “I uh…I thought we had…already made peace with…that? It’s been…god…two years since then?...and…at least a year since you last made…any mention of it.”
Ally nodded slowly as she looked back at Tess, who crossed her arms uncomfortably. “Is everything okay? Tess?” she asked. “Are…Ellie and Gabby okay?”
That seemed to elicit a reaction as Tess’ head snapped to look at her. “Oh…yeah, they’re doing good. Everything’s been calm for them…with Ellie now being a high end fashion designer, and Gabby taking up…you know…modeling for her…why?”
Hunter and Ally looked between each other uncomfortably. “Well…it’s just…since Ellie and Gabby have sort of…gotten out of their…formerly impoverished lifestyle, you uh…calmed down about the whole…not winning the money thing.” Hunter said, rubbing the back of his head.
“So…when we see that…picture…” Ally motioned her head at the smashed painting. “We uh…can’t help but worry about you.”
Tess looked over at the smashed portrait, before shaking her head. “I’m…I’m fine guys…really.” she said. “I just…thought I had a sudden spark of inspiration…yet…my mind just kinda…brought me back here.”
Hunter and Ally both didn’t fail to catch the girl’s eyes drift away from them momentarily over to a desk to their left, where they spotted a piece of paper on top of an opened envelope.
Tess noticed their eyes shift before looking back over at her, with a mix of concern and confusion, before she sighed.
“Alright…fine…” she grunted, walking over to the desk, and picking up the letter, walking back to give to them, which they both read over.
To Tess Morgan;
We hope that this letter finds you well. Of course, knowing everything else that we are about to tell you, it probably will not.
Regardless, we extend our own congratulations, because, to what will probably be your immense displeasure. Disventure Camp is having another season! And you have been personally selected to return!
As the runner up from the previous time you played during our All-Star Season, you made the natural qualifications as stated in your contract, and therefore, are required to return for this season. Production of the season will be starting soon, and we await your ‘agreeing.’ to return, please contact Kristal when you are ready. Our number is attached below!
Sincerely;
Derek Johnson & Trevor McGregor, Disventure Camp Producers
Disventure Camp Team
ⒸOdd-Nations-Cartoons
Hunter and Ally looked up at her.
“Just you, huh?” Hunter asked.
“Sounds like it…” Tess replied. “I don’t suppose you two got letters?”
Her two lovers shook their heads.
“Unbelievable…” Tess grunted. “I mean…all 3 of us Merged both times we played Aside from Riya, we WERE the only ones from our season to do that.”
Hunter frowned over at Ally. “Tess…you don’t have to try and play dumb…we all know very well why they probably just want you.” The girl said.
Tess frowned at that as she uncomfortably looked down at her feet.
“Have you already called Kristal?” Ally asked, after a moment. “You uh…you know you have to accept.”
“I…I really DON’T want to…” Tess said, looking back up.
“Well…something tells me they don’t exactly CARE what you want.” Hunter sighed. “We all signed the same contract after all…dropping it would be…not good.”
“I just…don’t want to go through this AGAIN!” Tess snarled, making both of her lovers jump back. “Especially without you two…” Her voice shifted from angry to almost upset. “After you both left in All-Stars…the game was torturous…I just…I just can’t do this again.”
Tess’ hand bunched into a fist. “The lying…the betrayal…the absolute insanity…” Tess grunted. “All those fans of ours…and the show…they think it's just some performance, an act. They don’t understand that this ‘GAME’ was hell. It destroyed all of us…and for what? The fandom culture? I can’t even log onto fucking YouTube without getting some hyper psycho analysis of our season, and speculative comments wishing for us to come back.”
“We…we completely understand that.” Ally said, biting down on her lip. “But…Tess…I think that’s why you…NEED… to return to the game.”
Tess blinked away the water developing in her eyes to look at her. Ally put a hand on her shoulder as Hunter smiled.
“Look…we…we know this game is hard on you…but…I think people will need you to keep that balance.” she said. “You’re not going to be the only returnee…others are absolutely coming with you, from our season…or from others. Don’t…don’t you think they’ll need you there…to hopefully stop what happened to Tom to happen to you.”
Tess looked at her. “I…I wasn’t exactly a saint in that department, you know.” She said. “There are people who said I was too obnoxious, too much of this morally righteous white knight, someone who gave Tom too much of a hard time when I let much more depraved shit go. Because of that…they were HAPPY I failed.”
“They didn’t see things the way you did.” Hunter frowned, crossing his arms. “Just like they are ignorant of how much of it was a game, and how much of it was personal, they didn’t get the whole story like we did. It’s their perspective.”
“Besides…” Ally shivered. “It’s not like you’re the ONLY one who these people in the fandom have eaten alive upon closer inspection. People from our season, like Tom and Riya…and the newer competitors like Logan and Jade have been torn to absolute SHREDS by the fandom.”
Tess nodded reluctantly in agreement. “I…I suppose that’s a fair point. But still…I don’t really…want to come back.”
“It’s uh…not like you get a choice.” Hunter sighed. “It’s not like we can afford to break the contract anyway.”
Ally looked over at Tess, nervously. “If you don’t want to go back we understand.” she said, reassuringly. “You can always just throw the game if you can’t handle the stress, just get yourself eliminated quickly. Throw the game, and relax until the end, there’s nothing that says you can’t…and…while the fandom might be upset…we would understand, and it won’t change how Hunter and I feel.”
“Yeah…we still love you, Tess…” Hunter said calmly. “Nothing will change that.”
Tess looked at them, hesitantly…before sighing. “I…I guess you have a point.” she said, looking away. “I…I just don’t know if I can face…most of them…again.”
“Hey…there will be a lot of people happy to see you…it’d be kinda deranged if the show brought back only contestants that have a reason to not want to see you and the new faces.” Hunter shrugged. “I’d hope they’d have learned their lesson about doing stupid stuff like that to people with known…past issues.”
Tess looked between them. “What about our uh…streaming plans…for our anniversary?” she asked.
Hunter and Ally both giggled as they looked back at her. “We can do that any time, our true fans will wait.” Ally giggled.
“Yeah, especially if we explain that you choosing this would’ve bankrupted us…” Hunter chuckled. “I mean…we can only milk Ally’s tier 3’s and Patreons so much before they start witchhunts at streaming conventions.”
Tess looked between her two lovers giving her encouraging looks, before she nodded her head. “Alright…I’ll…I’ll go.” she said. “But…are you sure you two will be okay?”
“Trust us…if we waited 2 years before you came back from college, we can wait about a month or two while you compete.” Ally smiled.
“That’s what will make our relationship work, after all…” Hunter pulled both girls in as he and Ally hugged Tess. “Win or lose, we’ll root and support you.”
Tess tried to fight down a smile as she hugged them both back.
“How about we uh…go out for dinner tonight.” She asked, as Hunter and Ally broke away from her. “It’ll…help clear my thoughts…just…give me a minute to clean up.”
Her two lovers nodded as they exited her studio, closing the door behind them. Tess let out a sigh as she turned back to her portrait with a hole, she picked it back up and slowly put her hand behind, to show off the scrapped paper of the image of the cartoonish police officer. Her eyes trailed to the two half developed, half painted women who were celebrating in the portrait, neither resembling Ally.
Tess sighed as she put the portrait down. “I think about what could’ve been.” she said, looking back at the hole. But…you made your choice…I hope you came to accept that.”
She reached for her phone, laying face down on the table, and turned it on, ignoring her wallpaper of her and the two girls in the portrait. She went to her contacts, located a phone number, one for Kristal McLane. Tess hesitated slightly, before pressing the call.