#animatic x reader

The limited handful of times you had attempted to think back on the past, you couldn't find it in that head of yours to remember when you had met Animatic. Was there even a time in your life that you didn't know them? You weren't sure, nor were you bothered to put in the effort to find out.

Nevertheless, you currently spent your days hosting alongside the circular fellow — or rather, cohosting. Being the host was Animatic's job, considering the contest was his idea in the first place. Not that you minded; after all, watching the contestants flail around and fail time and time again was the most fun you'd had in a while.

Taking notice of the sad, sometimes angry, perspectives of certain objects made you think that perhaps you shouldn't take joy in these things. Maybe putting them through traumatic experiences and pitting them against their friends wasn't supposed to be entertaining...

Yet, you couldn't bring yourself to feel a morsel of pity for them.

How could you? Watching Bob-Omb's face drop as Eyepatch was eliminated, their farewell being cut short as Animatic eliminated him via the usual extermination, had you kneeling over in laughter.

Your favourite host, who had taken to singing and dancing in the corner, always had the best timing.

"Gah, Bob-Omb, you—you just lost your only friend!" You managed to burst out between your laughs as you wipe a tear from your eye, "I don't know h-how you're going to manage without him — you'll be useless!"

You failed to notice the very target of your fun making advances towards you, "I-I think this has been my favourite elimination... The way you even shed a tear for Eyepatch!"

Suddenly, the wind brought the smell of smoke towards you, bringing your attention up to the object whose fuse had started to burn as he glared daggers at you.

"You're really going to stand there and laugh at me? Laugh at Eyepatch, just because he got eliminated?" Bob-Omb started, "What about this is funny to you? He's gone, and I don't know when I'm ever going to see him again."

You rolled your eyes, "It's not like he's dead forever or something, Animatic just... Eliminated him. Yeah."

"How can you be so heartless? For a cohost, you don't care enough about your contestants — I don't know why any of us even bother to do these horrible challenges when you and Animatic are the worst hosts ever! How can you just stand around and not feel bad for any of this—"

You cut him off with a crestfallen expression, "You think I'm a bad host?"

"Did you—did you not pay attention to anything else I said?" Bob-Omb felt his eye twitch.

"I work so hard to help Animatic with these challenges, and you think I'm a bad host?" You sniffled, before grabbing the surprised object in front of you and throwing him into the distance before his fuse reached it's end and exploded him in the air.

Someone would recover him later, probably.

Despite it all, Bob-Omb's words had affected you. Nothing about you being a 'bad person' or whatever, but rather the possibility that the others thought you were a bad cohost. Did... Animatic think you were a bad cohost?

You swear you had been putting the effort in, supervising the teams and ensuring everyone played fairly. But was it not enough?

Dragging your feet along the ground, you pouted to yourself as you kicked an imaginary rock on the ground. You still had time until the actual challenge started, so you made yourself comfortable beneath an odd tree further away from the other objects.

Not that anyone would ever attempt to approach you, whether you seemed sad or not. They'd rather not suffer a worse fate.

It didn't take long, however, for Animatic to notice that their favourite pal had disappeared on him. Usually, they'd be joking about the elimination or possible challenges to brainstorm for after today's...

With a hummed tune and a pep in his step, Animatic wandered off in search of you. It didn't take long to spot you in the distance, but the sad look on your face and your head resting on your hand was an unusual sight that Animatic hadn't seen on you before.

"What's gotten my little cohost looking so blue?" Animatic's sudden appearance would have startled you, but you had grown too used to their presence and you moved not a single muscle.

"Did a baby take your candy? Or did a Lego step on your toe?" Animatic began swinging their arms around in a cartoonish fashion, "I'm not afraid to clobber a baby!"

You sighed wistfully, "No, I'm just a bit... Sad."

Animatic felt as if alarms were going off in their head. Their cohost was meant to be happy, laughing in the contestants faces, but sad? Their cohost feeling sad? They weren't sure why, but he couldn't stop the horrible mixture of wrong swirling around in his guts.

Usually, it was interesting to watch objects reactions move around from upset to happy, to angry, to confused... But something about that wasn't right when it was you.

So that's what they said, "That's not right."

You raised an eyebrow at them.

"Would things be right again if I killed Exclamation Mark again? Eliminated another contestant?" He asked as if he were offering you a bag of chips, and moved his head up close in front of yours, blocking your sight from anything over than their large, round circle.

You thought about those options for a moment, before shaking your head, "Do you think I'm a bad cohost?"

The air felt stifled for a moment as Animatic seemingly froze in place, before throwing their head back and laughing loudly.

"Who told you that, silly?" His voice glitched slightly, as if choking on his own laughter, "You can't be a bad cohost if your the only cohost!"

Despite their words being near-nonsense, you nodded your head in an understanding that could only be comprehended between the two of you, "You're right, I don't know what I was thinking! That birdbrained Bob-Omb didn't know what he was talking about—"

You felt the air rush around you as two familiar hands grabbed at your sides, bringing you up in the air as you were placed on Animatic's head. It wasn't an unusual position for you, and it had made you wonder if Animatic could feel pain at all under the tight hold you had on his head, lest you slip off.

A giddy giggle came from your circular friend as they moved towards the grouped-up contestants, "Don't go getting gloomy like a sad lagoon on me ever again!"

You could do nothing but agree as you approached to begin explaining the next challenge.

"Oh, and Bob-Omb is joining Team DIET in their punishment penalty for this challenge!" Animatic called out.

Much to the mentioned objects chagrin, Animatic raised an arm, "Hold on, what—?"