“Look, she can’t just call back into the canon universe!” The angry disembodied head argued. “That’s not how magic celphones work!”
“You the one who told her to wield me like some kinda knife.” The ragdoll twisted his sewn on smile into a sneer. “You can’t tell her what she can’t do and neither can I.”
“It’s ringing, Uncle!” The Ladybug held up her phone triumphantly.
“Are we really just going to humor her playing ‘telephone’ the whole way?” The head rolled it’s eyes as it complained.
“It’s a long walk.” The Ragdoll huffed.
“Uncle, no one is picking up…” Ladybug looked at her phone like it had kicked her puppy.
“Sometimes that’s what happens when you reach out, OC..” The Ragdoll sighed, “that don’t mean you stop reachin’ out.”
“What do I do uncle?” Ocelia the ladybug princess scuttled in the middle of the savannah that was still a savannah, despite being ruled by a ‘Jungle Queen’.
“Are you actually going to let her do this?” The floating head of the Nopony snarled with disgust. “Even I’m not that cruel.”
“You can always call back, OC.” The ragdoll reassured the Ladybug.
“It’s ringing again!” Ocellia pranced in place with joy.
-=-=-=-=-
A tiny part of me holds out the tiniest measure of hope in my fluff. I wish I were surprised when her smile turns upside down. Her face should never have that look, that disappointment. “He sent it to voicemail… Mr. David doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“OC, remember, on his end we probably never existed.” I hate having to tell her this, I’ve tried to keep her moving forward, thinking forward. “Anyone back there probably doesn’t even remember we ever existed at all.”
“Or maybe that universe just doesn’t want you anymore, hmmm?” The obscene fragmented head smiles with a sickly semblance of sympathy. “It is a feeling I do understand, believe me. You’re ‘uncle’ understands it as well, though he feels like he’s being ‘kind’ in shielding you from the truth. But you're a big filly, you can handle the truth.”
“Shut up, you bucking bastard!”
-=-=-=-=-
“Uncle! Let it finish.” I promise, under squeaks, I’m going to get us out of this.
It’s not wasting time swatting Unce around the room anymore. And it’s not even interested in whatever it’s point was. Instead it looks at me, then looks at my doll. Then it asks. “Seriusly, is she aware that she is narrating all of that out loud?”
“Uncle, what are the fragmentaries?” That thing… that disembodied head is smiling at me, but it’s empty crystal eye-features are on my doll. It’s waiting for him to explain.
“Collapsed fragments of dead universes held together by the will of the texts.” Uncle’s laugh doesn’t make me feel happy. “Places that only exist because our mad god's whisper they ‘might’ exist.”
“How do we get there?” Do you see it, Undersqueaks? That building at edge of no where. Under a sky that never ends.
“We’re gonna get out of the outback the same we got in, OC.” Uncle gives me a hug, because he knows I need a hug. And he has to. I see Uncle for what he is, my little Under Squeaks. He is my companion. He is my weapon. He is mine. “I skipped over your first trip. Narrative privilege. But I can only do that one time. We gotta ride the Ghost Train.”