cami!!

Being alive is a real funny thing.

Blub, blub. The oversized bath reacts to every shift of his body as he lays in steaming water. Tenna looks over himself, purple-gray. Even distorted by the ripples of the liquid's surface, he knows that underneath still lies an…anomaly. He isn't fully mechanical; he isn't fully organic. What is he?

His chest rises and falls, and as he watches it happen, Tenna isn't even sure he's got normal lungs that need regular oxygen-rich air. But…it imitates you. Maybe, he reasons under his breath with a wobbly smile, that's good enough.

Splish and splash.

It's normally perfect for him, but the colors of his bathroom are too obnoxious right now, too cheery for how he feels. Would you like it? Would you be happy taking a bath in his tub? You did say you wish you were here, with him. He squirms his toes. Could you even be comfortable in a container so big? It probably is big enough to be a swimming pool.

It wouldn't be a problem with you sitting on his lap.

…

…

God, he should have done things differently. Why didn't he follow the script, the way it goes in the movies?! Your tender love is hurt. What happens next? You take their clothes off one…by one…and you wash their skin. If there's blood, the blood goes away. Same with dirt. And, one can infer from the way people look in each other's eyes, in absence of a physical substance it scrubs away the sin of nudity. So wonderful…so sweet… You would have been so sweet…

But when the time came, he couldn't do it. Tenna could cup your face and whisper your name, yes…but you can’t hear him— the real him. And does it count? Does it count when he has to speak with others’ lips to say he loves you? And is that why you said no?

He didn’t even think about if his light form could take getting wet. Would it hurt you? God. God! No more pain, please!

What a selfish, old TV.

…

Stop overreacting, Tenna. When a CRT heart was on the line, the lightner made a point to say it wasn't a no to being in love. All that was needed was time.

But you never said yes either.

…

…

Every motion he makes is amplified thanks to the water. His wrist waves his hand sluggishly and he watches the ripples, hears them ring in the tiled room. It's simultaneously so peaceful and so overwhelming. That's just like life, isn't it? And life drifts his thoughts straight to you.

He holds his face thinking about it. No…that’s not right. Taking advantage of you like that…so hurt and vulnerable. But that’s why he wants to take care of you too!

Naked in his own bath, he sits, conflicted, and sighs once more at his wobbling reflection, bright screen showing him his own crescent frown. Maybe he’ll never be clean…

─── ⊹˙₊˚ ˚⋆˙･｡ﾟ*.☆.* ﾟ. ⋆˙₊˚ ₊˚⊹───

Night falls and the time has come for Tenna’s return. You close your eyes in anticipation, and you become weightless as he picks you up, cheek gently pressed into his silky chest. It’s dark and cloudy— he already checked with the weather that it’ll be safe— but it still bothers him so to hear you gasp in worry as he crouches below the exit of the living room and pulls aside the curtain to enter the rest of the house. He goes slow…and then you see it’s just as dark as the living room tonight.

Step, step, step.

He sits on the linoleum of the kitchen floor and places you on his lap, facing him. He’s just…observing you. Tiny, precious, delicate you.

You gasp again as he cups your face, a single thumb all it takes to hold your whole head. Your heart races. How careful he must be to be so gentle! How tender, how kind, how thoughtful…

You swallow back tears thinking how you don’t deserve it.

“H-how are you?” you ask him, because that’s what you do instead of speaking about yourself unprompted. The TV head shimmers at you with its own soft sighs, it’s static, static, fuzz, buzz. Eventually it changes the channel, and an old romantic can’t help himself.

“I’m wonderful as long as I’m with you,” a voice says, and Tenna is more practiced by this point at being able to cut the lines at just the right moment. In the dark world, the lord of the screens winces as the actress he borrowed goes into a spiel about being in love; oh how it makes his heart ache that he can’t just be like that with you.

But you had asked how he was.

You did ask.

And he can never lie to you.

“Tenna?”

His shoulders jump up as he realizes the tenseness in him, and that so easily translates to holding you too tight, pressing his fingertips too hard. Oh dear, what if he can make claws in this world, too?! It frightens him, and he abruptly lets go and instead holds himself. He’d scrunch his legs up too if you weren’t sitting there. Expecting your actions to match his shame, he turns his screen away.

But of course, you don’t leave.

…Sigh.

You know why he’s like this. Last night he treated you nearly like an infant, just so fussed and worried over the littlest things. The difference, however, was last night the desperation and relief won out and he never let you go. Now… Now…

…Well, you know how it feels to feel too big sometimes. 

You step off of his lap and even standing you don’t meet his height, his neck sharply craned to not further damage a cracked ceiling. Your soft eyes look up…and you gently lay a hand on his arm. There’s a lot of things you could say— maybe a lot of things you never should. You never liked secrets, though, and unfortunately those come just as easy through words as they do through silence. So, feeling the warmth of his body radiating through his coat, you squeeze just a little, and you give him a smile. 

As soon as you touch him, Tenna looks back. The static crinkles and glitters, and then it gets darker…and darker.

Until you see him smile back.

“Heha!” You chuckle, unable to help it. It’s so goofy, so cartoony, so uncanny to see a glowing white grin in the dark! Your heart melts, and your thumb strokes his coat. Bringing him back to earth, however, also seems to lead him back to overthinking.

Bzzt! A crackle— a ripple in the light— and now it’s a big frown.

Like an obedient dog he shifts to get on his arms and knees to be as level with you as possible. 

It’s alarming. What does he want?! He’s right in your face, tilting his monitor left and then right. Then all of a sudden, the TV’s back on, and a bunch of folks are there and ready to frown just as much as he has been.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m sorry—”

Flick, flick, flick, different apologies play for you. That’s…confusing. “Why sorry?” you ask. “I…didn’t think there’s anything to be sorry about.”

In response to that, hope flickers in his chest, and Tenna begins to reach out…but quickly pulls back. He’s so afraid to hurt you more that he won’t even touch it. Instead, he palms his own cheek to mirror the one still red and irritated on your own face. 

The sinking feeling deepens.

“Tenna…” you begin, trying to make sense of a mess of emotions. Your fingertips touch your cheek, and your mouth stretches in disdain. How terrible that you can’t just heal overnight, but you never could, could you? Not physically, and certainly not mentally. But there’s one truth that wins out over how unfortunate it is to make him see you like this— one thing that, in fact, keeps you going at all.

“I’d do it all over again if it meant you’d still be fine,” you say about falling down the stairs.

Silence. It’s hard to hide how he’s cowering when he’s an oversized cartoon come to life. He looks…just like how you feel sometimes. Too big. Too big, and wishing more than anything that the house and everything in it didn’t know your shame.

…

“Tenna…you…— You’re precious,” you plead with him, and you rest one palm on his massive knuckles. “Just as precious as me.” Maybe even more. Even though he thinks he’s just a television, in that same way you think you’re just you. But by this point, it isn’t a secret you think more highly of each other than yourselves, and so that’s a fact you have to work with. 

Your hands are barely specks upon his as you reach forward, guiding them so easily as you come to him and step into his torso, a toy for him to hold tight, even if it hurts. “Okay?”

…There’s such a strange sound. As he holds you, there’s a familiar feeling. Rocking, rocking…but less for the purpose of serving you, as he has before in guiding you to sleep. No, he’s…rocking himself in comfort. Tenna’s shaking! You reach up to his screen and lead him to face you again, if it can help him center even a little. The glass is…pulsating, getting darker on the top and bottom and squeezing every pixel to the middle like a sandwich.

And that sound… It’s like a whine. 

All of a sudden, it clicks. All of a sudden, you know what your stuffed animals felt like as you held them to your chest and prayed they at least could hear your pain.

You’ve never heard a TV cry before.

─── ⊹˙₊˚ ˚⋆˙･｡ﾟ*.☆.* ﾟ. ⋆˙₊˚ ₊˚⊹───

The sensation of him wrapped around you is utterly marvelous. Rocking, rocking, rocking. Back…and forth. Back…and forth. Is it still for his own soothing? Maybe. That doesn’t stop the motion from soothing you, too, though. Gosh, you could almost fall asleep like this…

…Wait…

Your cracked lids lift up wispy lashes. Is that…the moon? You watch for a while, as if it may change, and you see that there's more than one. Bright, pale shapes near the horizon line through the window... Realization comes to you like the dawn.

“Tenna…look.”

…The TV follows your point out the kitchen’s glass panels. There’s things out there, white and round, like stars wrapping around the distant fence until they meld with the ghost of an old eggshell barn. It’s no wonder he doesn’t know what he’s staring at; you hardly did at first, after all. 

“Moonflowers,” you name for him. 

Tenna’s never heard of those before. The static tightens, somehow, almost as if squinting…but you’re right. Those aren’t lights; there are petals along that metal wiring that really are just so pale that they look like stars fallen from the sky.

“I don’t think it was one of the things I told you when I lived here before,” you say wistfully, “But I always dreamed of sneaking out at night and just standing outside, dancing with the wind. Pretend those flowers as big as your hands bloomed just for me of all people.” A small chuckle. “Ain’t that silly?”

Click. “No, not particularly.” He loves how well you ease into his chest at that assurance, beloved best friend. Nothing you say so earnestly could ever, ever be silly to him. Your hand curls against the white shirt upon his chest, and you smile at those little stars.

“No…I guess you wouldn’t think so,” you accept. 

"I'll make it happen."

...Your brow furrows. Did you hear him right? Your chin turns up in question, but you just see the underneath of his own, unflinching like a watchdog. His hold tightens again, but this time as a choice— to prove he is in control. The darkness blurs the boundaries of possibility, and all of a sudden every door that was closed seems wide open. He will, he promises, and staring out at the shadows of bent blades of grass is giving him an idea of how. 

Tenna caresses you so near his heart that it makes you wonder if he wants to lift you up and run— run all the way through the tall grass in the unmowed, leaf littered lawn and beyond the bounds of that star-dotted fence, never stopping. Never.

You wouldn't mind.

been working on this since august (meant to have it done for october. Oops!) as a way to get a shorter comic project done in preparation for how to tackle undertaking my larger one (it's still being worked on. Very slowly. But still) since i cannot lie i havent worked with deadlines since getting out of college so i kinda gotta figure out how to handle all of that on my own! which turns out to be a lot of spreadsheet stuff.

and i also cannot lie to you the tv bewitched me. i am a little obsessed with him (coughs. i made a cosplay among other things.) he fascinates me. he's been spinning in my brain since june. what a guy. didnt expect to walk out of ch3 feeling like i could write a whole essay about him. So what better way to spend the fixation than making a comic instead yayyy!!! yippee!!!! my god this took longer than i thought it would!!!!

one of my like top fav things about deltarune is how mysterious the dark worlds are what with the whole.... Do they exist alongside the light world? Did they start existing and have their pasts happen all at once? Were they're glimpses? who knows! I don't think we'll ever get an answer, and quite frankly the fact that we kinda get to fill in the gaps makes it all the more fun.

i know plenty people didnt care for chapter 3 but iiiii loved it and damn did it reignite my passion for this game. it never really went away per say, but it had just enough gaps in info and little tidbits of secrets and lore thats kept me drawing in and it makes me feel the same way chapter 1 made me feel when it first came out.