Chapter Text
Date: July 11th, 2018
Spongy’s eyes opened upon hearing Barf Bag call his name out from cellulose-knows-where. He waddled around the grassy area, searching for his friend while her calls grew louder. Once Spongy had seen her, he sped up until he saw a shorter grey object nearby her. Spongy waddled again, more cautionary. When they were in close enough proximity, Barf Bag introduced her plan. “Spongy! I remember how yesterday you felt we didn’t respect you and all that jazz, and I've been thinking on how to make you feel more welcomed as a true Team Ice Cube! member!”
“If that's the case, why is Nickel standing next to you? He's on another team.”
Nickel pressed against Spongy’s cheek. “Don't worry your sweet, sweet head, Spongeboy! Barfy here's got a plan!”
“Well, one of your activities you mentioned was flying in balloons, so naturally, I asked Balloony for any help on that, the same way I'd ask Tree on the best Christmas trees to get.”, she explained.
Nickel chimed in, “And the same way I'd ask you which bags are the best to vomit in!”
Barf Bag went silent. “I mean, I guess you could ask me that?” She turned to face Spongy. “Anyways, Balloony reminded me that Back in BFDIA, Nickel managed to use balloons to win a challenge and strike his enemies down with lightning! It was pretty cool now that I remember it.”
“Wait! How come you remember this but I don't if it was in BFDIA?”
“You were eliminated and sent to that weak trembling forest, remember? I’m sure one of the eliminated contestants would've filled you in…”
“Well, no, I was on vacation, enjoying my short time of peace.”
“Silly Spongy, you were eliminated for two years. That isn't that short.”
“I was used to squish people like seven times.”
“Less talking, more flying!” Nickel began to pace around, his face displaying a smile as he thought about flying his balloon again. “We gotta start soon if you guys want to become experts.” He stopped walking and faced the two. “You guys do wanna become experts, right?”
Spongy grinned and closed his eyes, “Yeah! I can’t wait!”
“Alright, so our first step will be to connect with the balloons we’ll be flying with. I’ve still got mine from all those years ago! It’s a bit deflated, but it’ll still work well! I just gotta…” He blew into the balloon for a while, its wrinkles smoothening out as it inflated and its skin began to turn translucent.
Although his smile stayed, Spongy raised an eyebrow at this, as he never had to inflate his balloons this much. Thinking similarly, Barf Bag started to worry that the balloon was getting too full. “Does it have to be that inflated? Seems a bit overkill.”
“What do you me—” Nickel closed his eyes as he heard a pop.
“No! Balloon, are you still there? Can you hear me?” Tears started to pool in his eyes. The balloon didn’t respond. “No… no! This can’t be how it ends. We’ve been through so much together! I’ll go get Balloony, maybe he could help!”
Spongy stared at the situation with suspicion. “He knows it’s gone, right?”
In under five minutes, Balloony came rushing to the scene, holding a grey, matte toolbox. He shouted, “Alright, let me see the damage!”
Barf Bag and Spongy were sat down playing pattycake. Barf Bag raised herself and pointed over in Nickel’s direction. “It’s over there.”
Balloony turned to see Nickel sobbing with his face on the ground with the salmon-coloured remains of his old friend. He trod toward the coin, reaching an arm out in solidarity. “Uh, Nickel, I don’t know how to say this, but… your balloon’s… gone.”
“N-no! It can't be! I'm not ready to say goodbye!”
Spongy started to grow tired of this, his previous smile having been scrubbed straight off his face. “So, are we gonna fly in balloons or not?”
“I think the session's called off, Spongy. Sorry. We'll be holding a funeral shortly for Balloon, if you want to come. By the way, could you get Fries? I think he'd want to know.”
Spongy sighed. “Fine.”
><><><><><><><><
Yellow Face stood on a box in front of Fries, Puffball, Bell, and Eraser. Fries raised his hand and asked, “Why'd you call us here, Yellow Face?”
“Okay, guys, so, I've got a plan. What if we played some trivia while we waited for the next episode? You guys could be in teams of two!” the face yelled out at his team.
Eraser was on board at first, but then remembered his (incredibly rational and minor) immense fear of Foldy. “Uh, is it with our whole team?”
“I already got Foldy and Marker on board, so they're gonna be a duo.”
Fries clapped steadily and grinned. He couldn’t deny it was a great idea. “Yellow Face, you've convinced me. I’m in!”
“So am I!” Puffball sang.
Bell, having nothing better to do, chimed in with, “Count me in!”
Eraser raised his hand, stating, “If we're doing this, it has to be today. Me and the guys are going out for a while.”
“Okay then, we need those buzzers from episode eight!” Yellow Face turned to one of hid teammates. “Bell, do you know where those are?”
“What buzzers?” Bell had no memory of such an item.
Barf Bag pointed straight ahead to the team, who stood about fifty or so yards away. “Look, we found the Fries! Race ya there!”
The two dashed off and abruptly stopped before reaching the team.
“Potential players!” Yellow Face smiled.
Barf Bag cleared her throat. “Hi, can we-”
Interrupting her, Fries yelled, “Hey, you two! Could you get us those buzzers from episode eight? I think Donut would know where they are!”
Spongy and Barf Bag stood still. They were both split between minds - should they tell him about his balloon or let him stay in blissful ignorance? They stayed silent as they thought.
Fries made their dillema easy; he grew impatient the longer they didn’t talk. He questioned, “So, are you gonna do it, or--”
“Fine!” Spongy returned as his eyebrows furrowed.
><><><><><><><><
Gelatin climbed upon a stack of forks, cans, and various other waste items. He raised his hand to his eyes and squinted, clearly searching for something. “Hey, Gelatin!” Barf Bag’s greeting pushed him off-balance.
Gelatin fell face-first to the floor before dusting himself off and waving. “Hi Barf Bag!” He turned around, seeing a familiar rectangle of yellow. “And Spongy!”
Spongy walked closer to Gelatin. “Do you know where Donut is?”
“I was actually just looking for him.”
“Let's look together!”
“Okay!”
The three paced together in search for Donut. Gelatin smiled as he led the other two, and Spongy was at the very back, looking fairly tired due to all of the missions he’d been sent on. Between the two, Barf Bag noticed the disparity between them and the awkward silence. “So, Gelatin, what have you been up to ever since the last challenge ended?”
“I’ve just been hanging around the junkyard, nothin’ big. It’s pretty fun to visit every once in a while, I like ravaging the place for random things. Actually, that’s where I found those forks a while back!”
“Wait, did you see any buzzers there?”
“Oh, yeah, I like to mess with Donut using them.”
Spongy was zoning out through the entirety of the conversation prior, but snapped back into reality upon hearing what Gelatin said. “Have we seriously been wasting our time here?” he questioned despite knowing the answer.
Gelatin stopped moving. He turned as he searched for the sweet treat until his eyes locked in on the target, who seemed to be staring at Bomby and Naily. Ignoring what Donut was doing, Gelatin snuck up on him before jumpscaring him. “Hey, Donut!”
Without hesitation, Donut grabbed Gelatin and dove into a large bush, dragging him along. Frantically, he whispered, “Gelatin, be quiet! We can’t startle Bomby or else he’ll move!”
“I’ve got a great idea to stop him from moving! What if all of us used Bomby to go to the junkyard–”
His voice only grew more enraged though his tone stayed low, as he didn’t want to alert the bomb. “Bomby is still our teammate, we can’t just kill him when we need something! Plus, does Four even recover people after challenges are over?”
“Aww…” Gelatin sat down, admitting defeat.
Donut grabbed some branches and continued staring at Bomby, thinking about what Gelatin said. It had been a while since he suggested exploding Bomby so he thought he had stopped, but it turns out Gelatin was the same as ever. Why would they even need to go to the junkyard? Was Gelatin planning to do that annoying buzzer thing for the seventy-third time? Then it dawned on him - Gelatin used ‘all’ instead of ‘both’. “Wait, who are ‘all of us’? It’s just us two, right?” He stared at Gelatin, awaiting his answer, hoping it was just a slip of the tongue.
“Oh, no, I brought Barf Bag and Spongy here.”
Donut sighed. “Get them in the bush!”
Bomby looked out on the horizon. The sun was in its highest spot, giving light to the world around him. He noted the trees, in their awe-inspiring gold tones. Below him, he saw the grass, which had a few flowers between them where he was. He stared out at the patio, remembering the times he had spent there and the times there he was yet to spend. Turning around to find Naily, he saw the bush behind him rustle and something yellow fall behind it.
Naily stared at the shrub. “You saw that too, right?”
“I was just gonna say that! Let's investigate!”
Bomby and Naily stared in the direction of the bush. They stepped in unison towards it, and Bomby reached in before he heard a voice. It wasn't a familiar one, it was far more soft-spoken than most of his teammates, but not exactly like anyone he'd met. The bush slowly said, “Hello!”, before sliding away from them.
The two stared at each other before Bomby declared, “That was weird.”
“Agreed.”
Bomby grabbed onto Naily and threw her into the closest inanimate bush, going through Donut's hole, but nearly impaling Barf Bag. She turned around, noting the congregation of her team, and questioned, “What are you all doing here?”, but before they could answer, she walked away to investigate the yellow rectangle she saw.
Donut began to sweat. “Oh! We were just–”
“Playing parcheesi!” Gelatin blurted out as it was the first thing in his mind.
Barf Bag sputtered, “Yep, that's what we were doing!”
“Isn't that a card game or something?” Bomby looked at all six of their hands, noting the lack of cards. “Where are your cards?”
Naily, being behind the bush, noticing Spongy staring at the sun. “Why is Spongy lying down behind the bush?”
Donut signalled to Gelatin to keep making things up in hopes that it would work. “He already won, so he gets to frolic freely! Or just lie down if he wants.”
Realising they were playing a game, Naily became intrigued. “Oh, what did he win?”
“They're playing parcheesi.” Bomby explained, none the wiser.
“Ooh, I dunno how to play that.”
“Neither do we!” Gelatin spoke proudly before realising what he had done. Barf Bag rested her face in her hands. Donut was infuriated at him. However, Gelatin continued. “We've just been making up the rules this whole time, that's why there aren't cards.”
“Oh, wait! Sorry for the inconvenient timing, but I've just realised me and Spongy have to go give Free Food some buzzers! You guys can fill in for us, right?” Barf Bag smiled at the two.
“Yeah!”
Naily placed herself in Spongy’s spot. “Cool, I won!”, she shouted, feeling proud of herself despite having done nothing.
Bomby objected to this. “Hey, who said you get to be Spongy?”
As they began to shrink towards the horizon, Gelatin remembered something, pulling out a crossword from a cereal box out from his back. “Wait, guys!”
Donut was already tired of his antics. “What now, Gelatin?”
“I've had this crossword that I can't find the last word for. What’s the opposite of coarse?”
Barf Bag turned around. “What, like an obstacle course?”
“No, I don’t think it’s spelled like that. This one has an a. Oh, and it’s four letters.”
Spongy turned to face the bush alongside his paper friend. He thought back to his time on the beach years ago. The sand was not coarse beneath his feet - no, it was quite the opposite. He remembered saying to Barf Bag once that even though the sand was fine, the vacation was far better than just fine. Spongy guessed, “Fine?”, before Gelatin let out a thumbs-up sign that poked outside of the bush.
><><><><><><><><
Once the duo had reached the junkyard, they made sure to grab the buzzers with great haste, ignoring oddities like the scraps of the Firey Speaker Box, Bracelety's signs and shrines, and even Firey Jr., despite him not ignoring them. Spongy had three atop himself that somehow kept balance, and Barf Bag held one in her arms the whole way to Free Food for their trivia night.
Spongy stared downwards, listening to their feet tapping the grass below. For a day or two, he was irked with the others around him. It was only yesterday his team couldn't figure out he was replaced, and his anger was only exacerbated by the fact that the events of today could only be described as a dumpster fire. Today was meant to be a promising day, but it only got worse and worse and worse. It was barely one o’clock and yet he had been sent on who knows how many journeys.
Eraser spotted the two holding an array of buzzers from different teams, excited to start the game. “Oh, finally, you guys are back.”
“Yep! We got…” Barf Bag stopped to count, “four buzzers with us.”
Spongy recalled his first adventure today with Nickel. “By the way, Fries, your balloon's dead.”
“What balloon?” Fries didn’t turn to face them as he dragged a buzzer to Puffball.
Barf Bag pointed to her left. “Nickel is holding a funeral for it somewhere over there.”
“Sorry, guys, but I guess I'm going to a funeral now!” Fries announced as he ran off.
This put a wedge in Yellow Face’s plans, but hopefully nobody would notice. He commented, “Oh! That was… sudden.”
“Wait, now I don't have a teammate!” Puffball complained.
A bead of sweat formed on the face’s forehead. “Uh… maybe you could team up with Bell?”
“Then who do I go with? I'm still here for a while, you know.” Eraser said, his impatience growing.
“Well, maybe you could… uh…” Yellow Face looked around for solutions. “How about Spongy joins?”
Barf Bag knew how this day had derailed and was nervous to derail it further - it was meant to show Spongy how he had friends who would support him on his team, but now a rival team is doing a better job at that than their own. “Would you be okay with that?”, she inquired.
Spongy thought hard about this decision, a hum accompanying his thoughts. It was a far cry from what he had expected to do today, but it beat sitting around doing nothing but just growing resentment towards his team. “Eh, fine.”