Work Text:
Vince was preparing his dark brown satchel with his clipboard and other necessities in order to be ready for his assignment with BanBaleena. All the while, BanBan watched carefully at the scientist’s every move, feeling a bit anxious, he has never physically gone with Vince to meet BanBaleena, he would always just give opinions of her.
”You know, you don’t really have to come with me. I’m just bringing you along since you need to interact with the other Cases, especially BanBaleena. You’re always with humans, which is fine, buttttt you two were basically made for each other, bonded even, I think, assuming you both have similar designs. It could be great if you make some sort of relationship with someone who isn’t a human.” Vince disrupts BanBan from his spaced out mind, the male chuckling from the odd reaction. “She isn’t really that bad. Last I checked on her, she seemed pretty okay, strange, but was okay.”
BanBan gave an unsure frown, not really easing up on the idea of meeting with BanBaleena. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to create a relationship with her, but mostly because he has spoken with her a few times, but was always returned with odd responses. BanBan himself says strange things, too, but not anything violent.
”So? Are you going to come along or are you just going to stand there like a red popsicle?” Vince teased.
”I…will go. I can’t look down on my fellow companions.”
Vince smiled softly at the response, he slides his satchel on his shoulder before making his way to the exit of his office, “That’s good to hear, I’m sure it’ll be a breeze. There’s no way she can possibly become worse, the other scientist’s have been giving her tests after all.”
”Right…”
“Hi, Vince! What are you in for?” Says a delighted co-worker, lifting their hands towards Vince for a keycard.
”Ah, you know, same-old-same-old. I will be making a report on BanBaleena. BanBan here will just be a volunteer on the examinations that I will be doing for her next report.” Vince lazy explains, pulling a keycard out from his pocket before handing it to the brunette, watching them insert the object into the keycard reader.
”Hm, good luck with that. There has been two scientists already who tried to speak with her, but all they got was blabbering about…violent subjects. They would’ve asked Saul to do it since he’s great with the Cases, but…you know.” Their frown grew as they continued speaking, a look of sadness was so clear on their expression. “You are almost as close to Saul’s amazing experience. Hopefully you’ll be the last to speak with her, I would hate to see her get casted off, she has great potential.”
“I hope so too. I do see the potential in her, she was very liable when they first created her.”
”I agree. Anyways, you two can come on inside, very sorry for the sudden conversation, I’m just disappointed is all.”
”No worries, cross your fingers, though.” Vince chuckles under his breath, walking inside the room with BanBan closely behind him.
As they both enter the strangely dark room, bright lights blinded the scientist. BanBan, however, took the room into speciation, taking account on seeing BanBaleena just…standing in the corner of the room.
”Welcome! You two are late. But that’s okay, you both are new to the class, don’t let it happen again!” Says a jolly female voice, BanBaleena looking at Vince then at BanBan with an empty yet golly look in her black eyes.
”BanBaleena, you do know that we are not the children, right?” Vince cautiously asks the mascot, quirking an eyebrow with curiosity and worry.
BanBaleena stands there quietly, no response whatsoever.
”I don’t think she knows—“
”Yeah, I got that already, BanBan. Thanks.”
The three stand there awkwardly, BanBan tapping his red nubs on his other hand nervously, unsure if he or Vince should speak.
But, BanBaleena won first.
”Take a seat! I don’t understand why you two are just standing there all doll-like. I do not take this type of rebelling very kindly. You two may take a seat on the table right there.” BanBaleena instructed, pointing at the table to their right.
Vince stares at BanBaleena, a bit intimidated at how crazed she looked, her messy hot-pink lipstick around her mouth did not help at all to making her less scary looking.
”Take a seat.”
BanBan got close to Vince’s side, crouching slightly to whisper in his ear, “I think we should sit. I’m worried for your safety, she looks…unstable.”
Vince glances over at BanBan, taking him seriously by the way he whispered instead of speaking openly. “I guess so.” He says back before making his way to the tiny chairs bestowed around the tiny table. He uncomfortably sat on the chair, too big for the chairs that were obviously made for children, not for adults.
The scientist couldn’t help but snort when BanBan tried to make himself fit on a chair, he was more larger than the average adult.
“Wow, you kids grow up so fast! I must speak with Principal BanBan about getting new chairs, I want my students to be comfortable as much as possible!”
BanBan could only point at himself, looking over at Vince with a “are you serious?” look, deadpanning when he saw the human terribly trying to hold in a laugh.
”Anyways, I wasn’t told I would be having a class right now. So I have no lesson to teach you kids, sadly…unless.” BanBaleena continued to stare at the two, but looking away when she got lost in thought.
“You should be taking notes about this, shouldn’t you, Vince?”
Vince snorts again when he looked at BanBan. “Yeah—sorry, I really need to stop looking at you, you look so funny.” He silently laughs, grabbing his satchel and placing it on top of the table, grabbing his stuff from it shakily.
”Wow. If I knew this was how it was going to turn out, I really wouldn’t have bothered coming.”
”Right—“
”No speaking, children. It’s education hours—oh, I just remembered, the classroom rules! I never said them, whoops, my bad. Let me introduce you all to them. No eating, no talking, no breathing, no moving, no asking questions, and no bathroom breaks. I have to punish you very, very harshly if you break any of the rules!”
Vince gave an uneasy look, that was not what she was programmed to say, the rest of the rules, yes, but not the breathing or moving. The male could only look over at BanBan, who seemed to not be fazed by the rules, but looked as if he knew that it was wrong. “You said she was fine, right? Because she doesn’t seem to be.”
”I know, but why? She was normal when we had made her first few reports, yeah, she said a few things that weren’t in her script, but other than that, her behavior was great, no hostility or anything.” Vince whispered as quietly as possible to the red mascot, grabbing the bottom of the small chair and scooting closer to the mascot.
”No. Moving.” BanBaleena called out with coldness, her wide smile still on her face.
The male scientist forgot about that rule, so he stayed still in hopes that she will forget and do nothing, she moved on, fortunately.
“As I was saying earlier, I have no lessons at the moment. BUT, I have a personal one that perhaps you all will enjoy! We will be learning how to dismember a human’s head, as well as getting to the brain and what to eat.” BanBaleena cheerfully exclaims, excited and not even a single hint of joking could be found in her voice, she was serious.
Vince felt uneasy, the slight gore description made him want to leave. She has never said such things when he worked with her, she legitimately acted like a kind teacher, no violent nature in her was found. But, then again, the Cases do drastically change.
”BanBaleena…how do you know about that?” Vince asks nervously, tapping his pen on the edge of the tiny table. BanBan stares down at the scientist, noticing the way his lap kept shaking up and down, he was scared.
“No asking questions!”
Oh.
Vince yelps when BanBaleena charges straight towards him, getting off his chair before running to the little playground on the other side, “Calm down, BanBaleena!” The human screams with fear.
BanBan got up as well, the situation turned for the worst, what should he do?
Instinctively, the red mascot grabs onto BanBaleena’s shoulder before pushing her to the opposite direction from Vince. BanBaleena looked at BanBan, a familiarity in her eyes.
”Oh! Principal BanBan, how nice to see you! I’m so sorry that you had to walk into this, my student has broken three rules already after I left them off with some warnings. These rebels these days! Don’t worry, I will take care of it, you just relax.” BanBaleena cheerfully tells BanBan, holding onto his wrist with a strong grip.
BanBan shakes his head quickly, “No, that’s fine. He’s..new, right? He’s not a rebel at all.” He tries his best to reason with BanBaleena, glancing at Vince with hope.
“…I guess so.” BanBaleena mumbles, looking over at the said human who was frozen like a deer whenever they see headlights from a car.
”Let’s just leave him with just warnings, no drastic punishment needed.”
“Okay, that sounds fair. I’m very sorry for my awful, impulsive actions.” She apologizes to the scientist, backing away to go to her assigned spot, the corner.
Vince smiled softly at BanBan, appreciating him for saving his ass from possible death.
Vince takes his seat again, watching BanBan do the same with the mini chair underneath him.
”So, how are you going to do this?” BanBan asks quietly to Vince, fumbling with his own fingers as he curiously looks at the scientist. Said scientist shrugs in response, “I..am not sure, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting her to be delusional and hostile.” He whispers, keeping his attention on BanBaleena as she also keeps her attention on him.
”Well, you can write that. Delusional plus hostile.” BanBan helps out, tapping his fingers on Vince’s clipboard. The young male nods, grabbing his pen before writing the event that just went down.
“Wow, you can write? Are you sure you’re a kid?” BanBaleena appears behind Vince, towering over him as her crazed eyes look at the words on the white sheet of paper.
Vince tenses as the closeness, fearing the worst. BanBan moved himself closer to Vince, taking his chance and nudging BanBaleena away from Vince’s back. “BanBaleena, keep your distance.” He sternly orders the female devil, keeping his arm between her and Vince.
”Oh, silly me. I always forget!” She giggles loudly.
Vince breathes heavily, ever since the NabNab situation, he hasn’t been able to breath properly when around the other mascots, even with BanBan…sometimes.
BanBan pats Vince on the back gently to ease him from stress.
”You can write how she’s forgets her orders as well, that is a very important necessity for us Cases.” He says, his fingers now rubbing circles around the male’s spine. Vince nods.
“I..I think we’re done for today. This is the minimum.” Vince shakily states his words, grabbing his clipboard and putting it inside his satchel messily. BanBan just stares at the scared boy, frowning at how sudden he’s being.
As Vince quickly gets up, he can’t help but look at BanBaleena again, slightly backing up, she’s already staring back at him. “Thanks for having us, BanBaleena.” BanBan says for Vince, grabbing the boy’s shoulders as he quickly leads him to the exit.
”Anytime, principal BanBan! Have a great day.” He exclaims with brightness in her voice.
When the two exit the room, the loud noises of the light turning off echoed throughout the establishment.
“So, what did they say about your report on BanBaleena?” BanBan asks Vince, leaning on the boy’s desk as he awaits for an answer.
“They said that the other scientists had already written the same stuff that I did. They had asked me to do it to see if I will perhaps have new techniques to let BanBaleena open up more with her…violent sayings.” He explains to the red mascot, slowly spacing out as his fear and anger grows.
“So you were just another…” BanBan trails off into silence.
”Yeah…I was.” Vince exhales deeply with frustration, closing his eyes shut as he places his forehead on the palm of his hands, “and you know what else? They’re going to force Saul to examine BanBaleena. They won’t even take consideration about his mental state—or anything that he went through!” The male looks over at BanBan, pain in his eyes. “They said if I can move on, then he can, too—that I look fine and well, but I’m not, a-and neither is Saul!” He yells with hurt, his voice breaking when he raised his voice. BanBan can only watch as Vince breaks down into pieces.
He’s disappointed in himself that he couldn’t help Saul skip this. Now Saul has to because Vince is just the typical, normal, stupid, basic scientist.
The red mascot touches the soft hair with his red fingers, intertwining the hair strands between them as he pets the boy’s head. “You did good, though…worry about yourself, first.”
Vince scoffs, but keeps silent as he wipes his tears with his palms.
…
”Of course you would say that…”