Chapter Text
Tenna looked down at the blocky item on his desk with a frown. A hand slides it forward closer to him with a huff. "Boss. I know it's a lot, but we have to do this. These companies, they're going to leave us in the dust if we don't adjust accordingly. Shit, some of these places are going entirely paperless! Absurd right? But, it's true." Mike gives him a reassuring look from his seat across the desk and leans back. "I swear it's not as hard as it looks, big guy, and I'll be there to guide you through it! It's just for a bit of business and then everything will be hunky doody." The older man in the larger chair runs both hands down his face with a small whimper, peering between his fingers at the object again.
It's a clunky, gray, work laptop, waiting to be used. "I just don't get it Mike! What's wrong with good ol' letters and faxes, it's just as good! We don't need all these newfangled doohickeys..." Mike sighs and leans against his seat, sighing once more. "It's just the way of things boss, people don't use horse drawn wagons anymore either." Tenna pouts his lip. "And now the poor horses are jobless..." he mutters under his breath. Mike feels an eye twitch slightly. "Look, I can do most of the heavy lifting, but you're gonna have to learn eventually or we're not gonna get anywhere. This is your own personal computer ok? you can leave it here or take it home, that's up to you, just make sure to bring it back here if you do leave with it." Mike sits up and gently pats the laptop while giving a polite grin to the other man. "It's already all set up, all you gotta worry about is sending out some emails to our collaborators every so often. That's not so bad right buddy?" Tenna looks up at him with sad and lost eyes, raising a brow with a slightly nervous smile. "uh. What… IS an email exactly?" Mike deflates and lets out a small groan mixed laugh, he thinks to himself, it’s gonna be a long day.
After a few hours of thorough and absolutely miserable learning, Tenna starts to get a somewhat usable amount of computer knowledge. Enough for Mike to be satisfied. "And with that, you are now officially email certified my friend." Mike says proudly holding both hands on the other's shoulder. Tenna has a small smile but still looks a bit frustrated and nervous about the whole ordeal. It's just all so modern and complicated! He lets out a steady breath and looks over to his producer with a small smile. "Thank you Mike, I really do appreciate you helping me with all this ... technology. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting it. Nothing can keep this star down!" he places a confident fist in the air with a grin, mike chuckles and slides back around to the smaller chair across the desk and takes a seat, letting out a small sigh. "See boss? it's nothing you can't handle. If you get confused or frustrated just call me and ill try to help you out with it, we can go slow with everything until you're comfortable alright?"
Tenna exhales through his nose and stands, gently closing the laptop and walking over to Mike to give him a pat on the back. "Thanks again, Mike, don't know what I'd do without you around! Probably become completely obsolete, totally forgotten! left behind by everyone haha!" He says with a strained grin and a bead of sweat on his head. Mike grimaces and pats the bigger man on the shoulder. "Look, it's all gonna be fine boss, just ... remember what we went through and try not to freak out too much over this, kay?" He makes his way to the door and pulls it open with a quick look over his shoulder, "One more thing! Don't do anything stupid, and don't talk to strangers. We'll keep going over everything tomorrow alright?" Tenna huffs a bit, "I’m not a child mike!" The smaller man chuckles again and slides out of the door, "See you later bud." He leaves the room, pulling the door behind him with a thud, leaving Tenna alone with his new 'friend'. He releases a deep sigh and picks the device up off the desk and glares at it frowning once again. "Everything is changing so fast...what if I can't keep up?"he pouts to himself. He takes the laptop and puts it into the bag that Mike had brought it in with and starts getting to head home for the night.
The clunky computer is placed down with a loud thump onto the wood of Tenna's home desk, being stared at intensely. The "proud" new owner runs a hand over his tightly curled hair and sits down in front of it, bouncing his leg already. "Alright, I can do this, nothing to it. I'm just gonna... take a little look! Adjust myself to everything, it's not gonna bite me! I hope..." he talks aloud to himself, flipping the top of the machine open with both hands. He stares down at the device and sees his reflection in the black of the screen. He looks closely at himself, slightly smiling at first but then noticing more and more the longer he looks. The wrinkles on his face, the gray hairs growing into his black hair, the bags forming under his eyes behind his glasses. He looks away and breathes deeply.
He looks back over with his head down, going to find the power button that mike had shown him... except, he can't find it. He looks over all of the buttons again, feeling himself get dizzy at all the numbers and letters and symbols, oh why are there so many buttons? They don't have these on a typewriter! He picks up the device into his hands with his eyebrow raised, turning it every which way; looking underneath it, on the sides with all the ports and plugs. the top of the lid with the logo in the center, just where is that darn button? He sets it down once more frustratedly and looks over it again. He then spots a tiny button in the corner above the keyboard. He plants a hand on his face and groans deeply, feeling embarrassed despite being alone. Pressing down the button, a small light twinkles to life, and with it the screen begins to glow.
Tenna begins to jiggle around the mouse connected to the device, sliding it every which way until he can clearly spot the arrow on the screen swiping around on the desktop's default background. "Aha! There you are, thought I had broken this thing already!" he laughs to himself, adjusting his glasses with his free hand and leaning forward to face the screen. Mike kept it very, VERY simple, leaving only 3 icons for him to click on. A small trash can, a round logo of interesting colors, and a little envelope with an E on it. Mike had told him before he only needed to use the envelope, the other 2 dont matter yet, he would teach him about those some other time. The man scratches at his head and slightly sticks his tongue out in concentration and begins to move his mouse shakily towards the little envelope. He looks across the desk to the object in his hand and taps his index finger over the large button underneath like he had been instructed. He immediately turns his head to the screen and stares. Nothing happened? He frowns deeply, feeling the frustration already. These things don't even work half the time! He did it again, intensely pressing down onto the button 3 times in a row, a bit more aggressively than necessary.
Suddenly the screen changed! It showered him in white glow, his glasses covered in the light of the screen as he watched with his leg bouncing once more. After a few tense moments, the application had loaded. He was shown a screen of his "inbox" as he was told it was called, with 2 read messages inside. A welcome to your new account email, and an email from Mike that simply said "Hello boss, this is an email!” he looked over everything again and tried to take it all in. He still feels that unsettling feeling in his gut. If there was one thing about Ant, he didn't like change. He has everything he could want, he provides exactly what his audience needs! Why would he ever want things to change? He looked over to the side at the words lining the screen next to his 2 emails.
There were so many to navigate! Inbox, important, sent, scheduled, drafts, trash, and spam. He knew what some of those words meant! He hesitates, scared if he presses anything wrong everything will be deleted and the machine will burst into flames. Feeling overwhelmed, he pushes his seat back and stands, peering down at the white screen shining below him. He huffs and turns away, "I need a coffee ... and a smoke." he mutters to himself. He gets a few steps away but freezes when he hears a little sound play from the laptops speakers. He turns back and leans down, placing both hands on either side of the device and scanning across the page to see what had caused the noise. He glances to the side at the categories he had been looking over, and notices a little red dot next to one of the words he wasn't very familiar with yet: “spam”.
---
Light reflected glowingly onto the puddles covering the sidewalks of the city. Splashing can be heard as little, white feet scramble their way forward, eventually throwing themselves around a corner and diving into an alleyway. Pattering of rain can be heard overhead as it washes over the alley in sheets, covering the dumpsters and trashbags the small man hid underneath for cover. He panted heavily, clutching a small, plastic bag closely to his chest as he shivered and tried to catch his breath. He breathed in deeply, peeking his head out of his hiding spot to look into the rain and make sure his 'deal gone wrong' had finally lost track of him. After seeing nobody around, he sinks back into his hiding spot, and releases the breath he had been holding in relief. Reaching jointed fingers into the plastic bag, they dug around and pulled out a half-eaten fresh bagel. Looking at it behind tinted glasses like it was pure gold, he ran his tongue over his teeth and shoved the delicacy into his mouth, devouring it in one bite. He sat back and sighed contentedly out of his nose as he slid down the wall.
Setting the plastic bag securely by his side, he began to look around twitchily. He ran his fingers through his matted, wiry hair, pulling slightly at the knots until he had to yank his hand away harshly just to get it free. He growls annoyed, pulling a few stray strands from between the ball joints of his fingers and shaking them away. He pulled his knees up to his chest and shivers, the rain had soaked him to the bone, and his only source of warmth had become drenched as well. He couldn't take off the wet clothes since they were all he had, and he wasn't getting a "public indecency" charge again. Bunch of prudes, god forbid a man try to take a shower. He gripped the fabric of his sleeves, watching as the rain dripped from the folds as he squeezed. He stretched an arm outwards and held a hand open in front of him, staring lazily at his palm with tired, half-lidded eyes as a dim green glow began to shine upon it. Gently shaking his wrist upward a green ad-space square formed above his hand, he knitted his brow, looking intensely into the blank space as he lifted his other hand. He pointed his index finger toward the projection and placed a tap firmly on the middle. It began to jerk and pixelate, quickly forming and reforming until sharp and jagged green lines began to appear, overlapping and making a scrambled mess that made no sense to look at. He smacked a fist onto his knee and squeezed his palm shut, causing the projection to vanish into thin air.
He mumbled something to himself until there was a sudden BANG. He jumped and immediately began to curl into himself, trying to become as small as possible, frantically pulling at his hair with one hand and weakly holding out the other to defend himself like it would do anything. He panted lightly, eyes darting around rapidly. He began to settle and laugh to himself, little distorted giggles at first before bursting into a loud and raucous bellow that jerked his head around. He gripped his face and squeezed. "SCARED OF, A LITTLE [[Thunder]] !! WHAT AM I?? A [[Baby]]? A [[Kitty Kat]]???" He ran his hands down his cheeks and fell over onto his side giggling to himself. He then shot up and frantically darted his eyes around, his little hands smacking and sliding around the ground until they hit a plastic surface, and hearing the crinkle immediately made him calm down. He gripped the bag and shoved it under his blazer. Still soaked, but sort of drying. He flopped down onto his back and stared up at the ceiling dumpster above him. Still hearing the rain pattering outside, forming an honestly soothing white noise. He rolled onto his side, curling onto himself shivering, the bag crinkling onto his chest as he squeezed his arms closer to himself. No matter how long it's been, he can just never get used to the cold.
A crinkle. Scratching. Another crinkle. Skittering. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. The puppet shoots awake, jumping onto his feet and swinging his head around rapidly. He takes a deep breath in, scanning the area. Trash bags, crumpled papers, empty popato chisps bags. He stares, honing in on one spot in the left corner. He doesn't move other than the shaking of his hands, and the squinting of his eyes. It begins to rustle, he tenses, squeezing an arm tightly over himself as he holds a fist to his side. There's a sound, a small squeak. A maus pops its head out of the mound of garbage bags, a candy wrapper stuck onto its head. The puppet stares bewildered, and then squeezes his fist as his teeth grind and his face goes red. He starts flailing his arms, pupils blown wide as he rages, the small critter staring up at him with one ear twitching. "YOU LITTLE [[narc!]] >> YOU. [[vermin extermination quotes]] !! GET 0UT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Puffs of steam rise from him as he flails, sending the maus to dive into the bags and scurry away from the noise as fast as possible. He huffs and heaves as his chest puffs out, grabbing his hands over his blazer to feel the bag underneath. "TRYING TO [[take & give]] MY [[Dinnnner]]!!! KICKING A MAN WHILE HES [[down, down, down]]!!!!!!" he rambles to nobody, turning and strutting away like he had just taken down a world champion wrestler.
He stops and listens for a moment, turning his head upwards slightly.... The rain had stopped. He felt his arms and wiped his chest. His clothes had become dry, slightly damp, but fine enough for his standards. He must've slept longer than he thought. He peeks out, seeing the green lines of the sky overhead, he moves his eyes around seeing that there's not many people on the roads, and that a few of the storefronts had closed. It must be the end of the day. He tried to convince himself he didn't just waste an entire day, that all the fun happens at night anyway! Cities never sleep! Except this is a pretty tired city. Buildings and buildings dedicated to nothing but busy work, tired and caffeine driven darkners bumbling about all day. It was a rather small city compared to some he's heard about but it had been steadily growing and growing. It had been given to a new lightner, and the potential was the talk of the town. Though his luck had been drained, strained, beaten, stirred, tossed, shaken and stomped on; the man could never turn down an opportunity. He just had to hit the right schmoe, get some poor sucker to finally trust him and he could be back on top, run this whole city,he could have it all again, he could be free.
A few days had passed, the whole city a buzz at the progress in the light world, every darkner was on edge, wanting to be useful, to be a success, to be the best. After some extremely skillful and sneaky eavesdropping that only left him 3 bruises and bent nose, the doll finally had enough information to scheme. Apparently their lightner was an important man, a light world celebrity, a tv star. But that isn't what interested our little schemer; he had learned that the lightner was old, gullible, and technologically incompetent. It was a conman's dream come true. It just so happened that his new 'friend' was all about learning email. How convenient for a former addison that specialized in just very that. In fact he was quite famous for it. Well infamous, more like, but what's the difference anyway? All press is good press right? In fact our little doll was so special from all these other schmucks he had his very own category, just for him! Despite being banned from the mail building and having no access to the inbox anymore, he could still reach out just the same on his own. Sure it was a warning, and sure they were put there to be ignored, but doesn't that just make it even more tantalizing? To know the unknown? He scurried back into a spot away from any prying eyes and leaned against the wall.
He breathed in a shaky breath and released it slowly through his nose. He raised a shaky hand out, and opened it flat to show his palm again. The small green glow began to shine once more, before forming another empty square above it. He blinked quickly, smoothing his hair down with his free hand before taking another deep breath in. His hand shakily lifted and pointed towards the square, looking at it more focused and concentrated than anything he had ever before. This was his chance, he can't afford to mess this up, he refused. He tapped onto the projection and squeezed his eyes shut. A few seconds passed, and he wearily opened one eye to peek at it. There were no squiggles, no mess, there was a small line blinking on the left, and a keyboard forming at the bottom. His eyes shot open, pupils wide and shiny. His segmented jaw dropped and he stammered. He did it. He couldn't believe it. He doesn't even know how long it had been since he could do anything like this, he had lost count a long time ago. Trying not to freak out and lose his chance, he took multiple long and deep breaths to ease his shaking body and twitching hands. He focused in front of him and moved his fingers to the dimly glowing keyboard, beginning to write as his smile grew wider and wider, distorted giggles pouring out of his mouth.
He stared at the screen intently, light glaring over his square glasses. He sat back down and leaned in closer to examine the mysterious red dot that had alerted him. What did that mean? He doesn't remember Mike saying anything about red dots or "spam". He felt a pit in his stomach, should he ignore it? He didn't want to accidentally end up messing up something, he should really have Mike tell him first. He stared longer, sweat forming on his forehead. Curiosity was beginning to gnaw at him, he wanted to know what it was so bad, but he knows it won't be something he'll understand. It could be important though! He scratched his head, hovering a hand over the mouse, how bad could it be? It's just mail. just words on a screen. He rests an unsteady hand onto the navigator and moves the arrow onto where it reads spam. He waits, still feeling a nervous cold chill run through him, like what he's doing is wrong, like it's bad news. He should wait for Mike, maybe he can call and ask him? His eyes look down at the bottom corner of the screen to see the time. Oh mike is surely in bed by now, and he doesn't want to bother him, he sighs putting his hands on his face again. He hates this. He hates not knowing how things work. He's young! He's groovy and cool! He hates feeling so ... old and lost.
He sighs and leans back, feeling spite run through him, warming up his nerves. He's a grown man! He doesn't need to have Mike hold his hand for everything, he can figure this newfangled mess out on his own. He's fully capable of doing this alone. He puts his hand back down on the mouse and drags the cursor over to where it says spam and clicks it. A page that looks exactly like the inbox page appears, only with one unread email lying inside. There's a symbol next to it with an exclamation mark. He rubs his chin, that must mean it's important right? Exclamation marks mean it's urgent! His eyes scan over the sender, the other person's email according to his mentor. "[email protected]" he stared at it confused, he doesnt know anyone with a name like that, and what a weird name it is, why does it say it twice? Why are there numbers? oh tenna starts to feel overwhelmed again and slumps into his chair with a whine. He leans back up to read the subject line, "HEY_HEY!!! OPEN FOR THE CHANCE OF A *LIFETIME*!!!!!!" he felt flabbergasted. Well, if it's important he should read it right? The little symbol next to it showed that obviously. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decides to click open the email to see this "chance of a lifetime". It takes a moment to load, but once it does he looks like a deer in headlights.
"DEAR _MrAntTenna_
DO U WANT TO BE B1G!!! DO U W4NT TO STAY BIG??!! D0 I HAVE THE >>>*DEAL*<<< FOR
[[Bright & Honest]] SOULS LIKE YOU!! BELIEVE IT OR !! YOU CAN HAV3 IT ALL WITH ONE (one)
EAZY STEP!!! [1358379843.jpeg]
LETME T3LL YOU! I USED TO be A BIG SHOT. THE BIGGEST!!! bUT SOMET1MES WE NEED A LITTLE
[Genorisity]
IS YOUR BUSINESS STRUGGLING?? FLAILING?? BURNING ALIVE????????
YOUR PAL IS HERE 2 HELP!!! I MADE MYSELF KNOWN ALL ON MY OWN! I MADE MY OWN
CALLS, MY OWN SHOTS! ! WHEN TH1NGS WENT DOWN THE [[Drain]] I GOT A PLUNGER AND
PULLED MYSELF [[Up, Up, Up]]!!!! I CAN DO THE SAME FOR YOU YOU YOU!!!!!!!
JUST L00K AT MY [[Pride &]] JOY >> [3423442BigShotAutos.jpeg]
AREN;T THEY BEUATIFUL? YOU TOO CAN TAKE A RIDE TO THE T0P! FEEL THE WIND IN YOUR HAIR!!
REACH KNEW HEIGHTS!!!!!!!
D0NT [[Wait, WAIT]] CLICK N0W TO LEARN TH1S EAZY SECRET!!!!
>>>[Hyperlink Blocked] <<<
-SPAMTON G SPAMTON c.
NUMBER ONE RATED SALESMAN 1997"
He blinked rapidly, dropping back onto his chair and holding a hand on his head. It had only been a day and he had become overwhelmed so many times. Now there was this... word vomit monstrosity in front of him. Is this all that modern text lingo he had been hearing about? He felt like his head was spinning, and then he grimaced, is every email going to be like this one? He read it over and over, trying to make sense of the words in front of him. He slowly started to unravel the puzzle of words, and began to process everything. This mystery salesman wants to help with his business? How does he even know about the studios...less than perfect ratings? The more Tenna lingered on it, the more that he thought that the studio really COULD use some more help; ratings and profit had been going down, even if he didn't want to admit it. He bit his nails and kept his eyes glued to the screen. Mike's words lingered in the back of his mind, words weighing on him like a mother's, "Don't talk to strangers". He sighed, and rested his head on his hand, looking at the strange email. Just who exactly was this guy? What kind of business does he have? Something with cars?? You couldn't pay him to try and understand what "[3423442BigShotAutos.jpeg] " could possibly mean.
Spamton G. Spamton... the more he thought of it, the nicer of a ring it had. He should just ignore this and leave it but there's something about it that draws him in. What is this crazy secret? He needs to truly know a client before striking any kind of deal, he's not good with tech but he isn't stupid, far from it actually. He knows how to handle a contract and negotiations like a beast. Maybe he could ask this Mr. Spamton for a meeting? see what this is all really about. He rolls his shoulders and shakes some confidence into himself. Mike had shown him how to send these things out, it can't be that hard! He grips the mouse and navigates the little arrow to the small words by the email reading "reply" He presses down once and the page shifts, showing an empty space to begin writing a response, one single finger pressing into the keyboard per letter.
" Dear Spamton G Spamton,
Thank you for reaching out to me. I appreciate the offer to help. I am going to need some more information on this deal of yours before I can make any kind of decision. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting? You seem like an interesting fellow, I would be happy to have you come by the studio. Feel free to reach out to myself or my assistant Mike through the company number.
Kind Regards,
Mr. Ant Tenna.
Tv Time Studios"
Tenna made sure everything was written neat and clear like any physical letter he would send, always punctual and precise. He had a nagging thought in the back of his mind that he shouldn't do this without Mike, but damn it, he was the boss around here, not Mike. He grinned satisfied with the digital letter, and slowly navigated the mouse to hit send. Feeling a strange sense of satisfaction he stood up and beamed. He sent his first email! All on his own! He glared at the time. It was so much later than he realized, he grimaced and sucked a breath in through his teeth. Happy with his progress he closed the laptop and put it back into its bag for tomorrow. After a much needed smoke break on the balcony, he made his way to bed. He had a big day tomorrow.