#object novel

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[list of episodes]

episode 1: square up!

episode 2: search party

episode 3: sucker ball

episode 4: shooting star

episode 5: poly-gone

episode 6: little icarus

episode 7: mathematicakes

episode 8: friends... to the end

episode 9: break the 3rd wall

episode 10: all that twinkles is not gold

episode 11: catch my drift

episode 12: the logarithm labyrinth

episode 13: softly spoken magic spelling

episode 14: vexed by hexagon

episode 15: proof

episode 16: shape escape!

episode 17: paradise lost

episode 18: race to the 2nd dimension

episode 19: home (away from home)

episode 20 (finale): the endpoint

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[character references]

please note that these drawings are not to scale. if a character is not listed, their pronouns can be requested in the askbox.

circle: he/him

square: he/him

triangle: she/her

rectangle: he/him

star: he/him

heart: he/him

rhombus: they/them

droplet: she/her

kite: she/her

oval: he/him

heptagon: he/him

parallelogram: he/him

trapezoid: he/him

pentagon: she/her

hexagon: she/her

octagon: she/her

möbius strip: he/him

origin: he/him

origin z listened intently to her brother’s plan. “OKAY, Y… BUT WOULD IT WORK?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” origin y asked.

“OCTAGON WAS ONLY ABLE TO REACH INTO THE 3RD DIMENSION BEFORE WHEN MÖBIUS STRIP WAS THERE. SHE HAS SOME DIMENSIONAL POWER NOW, BUT I DON’T KNOW IF SHE WOULD HAVE ENOUGH TO DO IT ON HER OWN.”

“SO WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?”

“WELL, YOU CAN HELP HER.”

“HOW?”

“WELL, WHEN YOU KNOW HOW IT WORKS. SHAPES ARE ABLE TO CROSS INTO THE PARADOX WHEN ATTACHED TO ONE OF US, RIGHT?”

“...RIGHT.”

“SO, I’M THINKING, IF OCTAGON COULD DO HER 3D ARM THING WHILE ATTACHED TO YOU SHE’D BE ABLE TO REACH INTO THE 3RD DIMENSION.”

“OKAY… BUT NO, THAT WOULDN’T WORK. FOR ANY SHAPE TO BE ATTACHED TO ME THEIR LINES HAVE TO BE GONE.”

“SO JUST HAVE ONE OF THE OTHER SHAPES USE THE GRAPHER ON HER WHEN SHE’S ATTACHED TO YOU.”

“WOULD THAT REALLY WORK?”

“I THINK SO. BUT THEN, I DON’T KNOW IF OCTAGON WOULD BE ABLE TO REACH FAR ENOUGH WHEN SHE DOES DO IT… THE 2ND AND 3RD DIMENSIONS ARE PRETTY FAR APART.”

“...OH, HUH… WELL, I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA OF WHAT TO DO. WE GOT THIS! SO ANYWAY, UM, I’LL BE HERE. ONCE IT’S TIME FOR THE ELIMINATION COME TELL ME, AND OUR PLAN WILL BEGIN. THEN STICK THE CONTESTANTS TO YOURSELF AND FLY TO THE LOGARITHM LABYRINTH LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!”

“THEIR LIVES DEPEND ON IT!”

“YES. OKAY. I’M JUST GONNA UPDATE THE FOLKS ON THIS END AND I’LL BE RIGHT BACK.”

“GOT IT, Y!” 

“SEE YOU, Z.”

origin y flashed out of the paradox.

sphere smiled at origin z. “you got this.”

“i hope so… hey, i’ll be right back.”

origin z flashed out of the paradox herself and translated over to the cabin. she wasn’t surprised when she found hexagon sitting outside, wide awake.

“hey, hexagonal prism, you and the others will go home today.”

“what?” hexagon gasped. “really?” 

“yes. my brother and i have come up with a plan… and it’ll only work if you, cylinder, and pyramid cooperate. i can’t really explain in detail but i think you’ll know when it’s time.”

“okay. got it. i’ll be sure to tell the others.”

“okey dokey!!! now i gotta go, before möbius strip sees me.”

“thank you so much, origin z!”

origin z giggled as she flew off.

hexagon held octagon’s pacifier in her hand and squeezed it. everything will be alright soon enough, she thought. just you wait…

…

“COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!” möbius yelled. “IT’S ELIMINATION TIME! DOO-DOO!!!!”

cylinder groaned. she was too tired for this nonsense. she dragged pyramid out of bed and together with hexagon (who had still been outside when they found her) went over to möbius strip.

origin z heard möbius’s voice and flashed into the paradox. 

“OKAY, PLEBS. IF YOU KNOW ME AT ALL, YOU KNOW WHO I’M ELIMINATING RIGHT NOW.”

“we actually, um, don’t know anything about you,” cylinder stated. “who are you, anyway? what are you?”

“THAT’S FOR ME TO KNOW AND FOR YOU TO FIND OUT.”

“...okay then.”

“ANYWHO… IT’S HEXAGON. WE ALL KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE HEXAGON. SPARKLE?”

origin z had flashed back. she was glowing. “yes?”

“TAKE HER AWAY!”

origin z began to buzz; not only hexagon, but also pyramid and cylinder were drawn towards her.

“WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING???”

“hey, origin z,” hexagon piped up, “take the others. but leave me here. i’ll catch up to you.”

“...are you sure?” origin z asked.

“yes. now go!”

origin z stopped buzzing. with pyramid and cylinder attached, she began to soar over to the logarithm labyrinth.

möbius strip was seething. “WHAT THE HELL?” he was about to fly off when hexagon grabbed him.

“don’t think i’m done with you, möbius!” she yelled.

“LET GO OF ME, YOU WRETCH!”

“no way! i’m pissed off at you! you cling so strongly to the idea that everyone’s a monster that you’ve let yourself become one! you’re an idiot! you’re a hypocrite! my primes, what is wrong with you?”

“NOTHING. NOTHING AT ALL. STOP TRYING TO BE A HERO. HEXAGON. I SEE IT IN YOUR EYES, YOU JUST WANT TO SPITE ME. YOU JUST WANT SOME SELFISH, SELFISH CATHARSIS.”

“so what if i do?” hexagon cried. “i don’t care if you think i’m horrible! because we are the same! you’re not a god and neither am i! so shut up and stop acting like one!”

“but what if i am a god?” he whispered. “how would you know?”

meanwhile, origin z had arrived outside of the tunnel.

“okay,” she murmured to pyramid and cylinder. “good luck.”

the two nodded, smiled and began to crawl through the tunnel.

back in the 2nd dimension, origin y had attracted all of the shapes but oval to himself now that his sister had given him the signal.

“are you ready?” origin y asked.

oval gave him a thumbs up and blasted the shapes with the grapher. their limbs reappeared.

“okay, everyone. slowly and carefully stand up. hold hands and make a line… octagon should be at the end.”

trapezoid and pentagon squeezed each other’s hands. pentagon was holding octagon’s.

“are you okay?” she asked.

octagon’s face was clouded with fear. “i don’t know.”

“you can do this!”

“yeah!” trapezoid agreed.

octagon smiled slightly.

“now,” origin y continued in his gentle voice, “i’m going to flash just a little bit. i’m not gonna flash strong enough to go to the paradox, but just to give octagon more dimensional power. okay?”

octagon nodded.

origin began to glow a bright light.

“okay, octagon. reach your arm out. we can do this.”

octagon extended her free arm. slowly it began to rise out of the 2nd dimension, carrying her with it. 

as she rose into that strange limbo she held tighter onto pentagon’s hand.

pyramid and cylinder had made their way into the cave, noticing the floating möbius strip in the center: their home, the 2nd dimension.

suddenly a fuschia hand reached out from the möbius strip, coming through it somehow, without a body visible on the other side.

“grab on!” octagon’s voice rang out. pyramid and cylinder did so. “NOW!” octagon yelled; origin y stopped transferring dimensional power to her, and they were all dragged back to the 2nd dimension.

origin y let go of all the shapes and they collapsed on the ground.

“home,” pyramid murmured. “home! i’m finally home!!” they hugged cylinder and the two wept.

“wait…” heart said, “w-where’s hexagon?”

octagon’s eyes widened.

“she told origin z to go without her, and that she’d catch up,” cylinder answered, wiping her eyes.

“...so we have to do it again,” square said.

“can you do it, origin?” kite asked. “octagon?”

“yes, we can,” origin y said. “but i’ll ask my sister what’s going on… i’ll be back in a sec…” with that he flashed away to the paradox.

at the same time, hexagon shoved möbius strip aside and began to run for the logarithm labyrinth.

she was speeding along as quick as she could, but möbius strip soon overtook her.

“hexagonal prism!” origin z called. 

hexagon turned around.

origin z attracted the little polyhedron to herself, and together they flew to the tunnel entrance.

unfortunately, möbius got there first. he began to hit his body against the mouth of the cave tunnel, causing rocks to fall and block up the entrance.

“NO!” hexagon cried.

“don’t worry, pal!” origin z exclaimed. “you can take the long way around… and möbius strip won’t be able to stop you.”

she flew over to the base of the mountain, where there was an opening.

origin z released her and quickly returned her limbs. “okay. you’ll find your way there eventually… good luck! and thank you!!”

“thank you, origin z… i’ll miss you.”

origin z glowed. “i’ll miss you too. now get going!!!!”

hexagon began to traverse the network of caves and tunnels within the mountain. i wish octagon were here with me, she thought. we got through the labyrinth in the 2nd dimension so quickly together! 

to play it safe, hexagon kept her right hand on the wall. it would take a while for her to find the tunnel to the 2nd dimension, but she would find it eventually. 

möbius strip watched hexagon enter the mountain… so, like before, he bumped against the mouth of the cave so it was blocked off with rocks and stones. hexagon heard a distant rumble.

she was trapped in the labyrinth.

a sudden feeling of panic surged in her body, causing her to let go of the wall and frantically go from tunnel to tunnel.

meanwhile, origin y had just returned from the paradox.

“okay, guys, so hexagon has to traverse the 3D version of the logarithm labyrinth to get to us, so it might take a bit longer for her to get here,” he explained.

“wait, why?” pyramid asked.

“möbius strip blocked up the main entrance.”

“oh… the only other ways in are the skylight and the other tunnel, but both are way too small…”

“so how will she get back?” trapezoid fretted.

“well, we all got dragged back here once origin stopped flashing, right? because the dimensions were correcting themselves?” droplet asked.

cylinder nodded.

“then i might have an idea… pyramid, cylinder, could you possibly join our hand-holding chain? we’ll need to reach even farther…”

hexagon was running around erratically, desperately, not knowing what to do.

the 2D team repeated their plan, this time, with a longer shape chain, letting octagon fully emerge into the 3rd dimension. of course, she was still holding pentagon’s hand.

“HEXAGON?” she screamed. “HEXAGON!!!”

hexagon stopped in her tracks.

“FOLLOW MY VOICE, HEXAGON! WE’RE HERE TO GET YOU!”

“NO YOU’RE NOT,” an all too familiar voice growled.

“möbius?” octagon asked in surprise, glancing around. “geez, where is that voice coming from?”

möbius strip ignored her question. “WHY RESCUE HER?” he could not enter the cave, but his voice could; it echoed around octagon. “HEXAGON LEFT YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED. WHY SHOULD YOU TREAT HER ANY DIFFERENTLY?”

octagon ground her foot into the rocky floor in anger.

“WHY NOT MAKE HER FEEL THE SAME PAIN YOU DID?”

“BECAUSE I LOVE HER, YOU IDIOT!” octagon cried.

hexagon ran towards the sound of her voice, tears streaming down her cheeks. she found a deep hole in the wall; when she peered through, she could see octagon’s eyes, shining with tears and defiance. 

“OCTAGON!” hexagon gasped.

“HEXAGON?”

octagon looked through from the other side.

“YOU’RE MAKING A GRAVE MISTAKE, OCTAGON,” möbius chided.

octagon stuck her hand through the tunnel. “IT’S THE BEST MISTAKE I’LL EVER MAKE! GRAB ON, HEXAGON!”

hexagon reached her arm into the tunnel, trying to feel for octagon’s hand. “I CAN’T REACH!” she cried.

“I HOPE YOU ALL DIE IN YOUR HELLHOLE,” möbius strip snarled. 

“I HOPE SO TOO, MÖBIUS!” octagon screamed. “I HOPE SO TOO!”

she pushed herself against the cave wall, stretching her hand out as far as she could. she felt a hand in the darkness. she grabbed it and held tight.

“NOW, ORIGIN! NOW!!!!!!”

origin y ceased his flashing, and the shapes’ supply of dimensional power was cut off. they all were pulled back to the 2nd dimension, hexagon phasing through the cave wall as her body entered limbo. she passed out.

meanwhile, möbius strip was now alone beside the mountain… well, not as alone as he would like.

“hello, sir!” origin z greeted.

“get away from me.”

“NO THANKS!!!!” and she began to buzz.

“WHAT? NO! STOP!!!”

but there was nothing he could do. möbius strip was dragged closer and closer towards his co-host. 

“oh yeah,” she said, “don’t be surprised when you don’t see sphere in the paradox. i already let him go.”

with that, she flashed into the paradox.

…

“so we c-can finally go home,” heart sighed in relief.

“indeed we can,” cylinder – rectangle? – said. 

“then let’s go!” pyramid – triangle? – exclaimed.

“wait, guys!” origin y yelped.

“what is it now, big guy?” parallelogram asked.

“it’s just… look, i know we’ll all see each other again. but this is still a goodbye, right?”

pentagon and trapezoid exchanged glances.

“so we should… we should say goodbye.”

“especially because…” square bit his lip. “we’re moving. all four of us group twoers. we’re moving out of geometropolis.”

droplet gasped. “no! square!”

“don’t worry!” circle patted her on the head. “we’ll keep in touch!”

“we may find someplace better than here,” square continued. “we may not. either way, we’re gonna explore this dimension a bit more…”

star fell onto him and wailed. “noooo!!!! i’ll miss you so much, bro!”

square chuckled. “oh yeah? well i’ll miss you more!!!”

the shapes gave their farewells, all of them temporary. they would see each other again.

helvetica had been sitting around hexagon, who had still been knocked out. all of the commotion caused her to wake up.

she rubbed her eyes. “where… where am i?”

pentagon grinned at her, helping her up. “you’re home!”

hexagon looked around. “hey, where did octagon go?”

after a few moments, octagon reappeared, holding hexagon’s ukulele.

“you…” she began, “you left this.” she held out the instrument.

hexagon’s eyes glimmered. she held out octagon’s pacifier. “and you left this. trade?”

“yes, please.”

the best friends exchanged objects.

“hey…” hexagon murmured. “just for the record… i’m sorry. i had my reasons for doing what i did, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.”

octagon averted her eyes. “yeah. it did hurt, and it still does… hexagon, i’m still upset at you. but thank you for the apology. i shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions… you’re one of my best friends forever, and i’m sorry i forgot that.”

“it’s okay, sweet girl.” hexagon extended her arms for a hug.

octagon simply took one of her hands and shook it, smiling softly. “we’re not there yet, cookie thief. but we will be.”

origin y watched in silence as the shapes slowly but surely left the field. it was the 20th day. just as long as the contract asked for.

“hey, origin,” a voice called.

origin y turned to see circle smiling up at him.

“thank you for everything,” circle said. and he kissed him.

circle then ran off to join his friends. “bye everyone!! love you all so much!!!!”

origin glowed. he flashed away to the paradox.

there was love etched into the fabric of the universe. there were emotions plotted onto its graph. it was held together through brunnian links.

geometropolis was not blank now.

the night seemed darker than usual. the door to group two’s cabin was open, letting the cold air seep into the otherwise warm haven.

square sighed. “listen, triangle, i don’t hate you.”

“yes you do.” triangle was standing in the doorway, motionless.

“shut up. no i don’t. i have plenty of reasons to be pissed, but i don’t hate you.”

“why?”

“if you know someone for practically all your life, it’s hard to suddenly hate them over something.”

“that’s stupid.”

“you’re stupid. go to bed, triangle.”

“no.”

“fine. be exhausted in the morning for all i care.”

“shut up.”

but triangle did not leave; she still stood in the doorway, motionless.

“geez, decide what you’re doing!” square groaned. “either stay or go. it’s getting cold in here.”

“good.” 

“you’re an idiot, triangle.”

“i know.”

“...isn’t it crazy how someone from helvetica’s finally being eliminated? took ‘em long enough.”

“they’re too good.”

“i know. they didn’t even choose to be together, and yet they work so much better than the rest of us.”

“well, if you know someone for practically all your life, it’s easy to suddenly hate them over something.”

“whatever. good night, triangle.”

“no thanks.”

triangle stayed where she was all night, standing in the door, motionless. the air didn’t feel cold to her at all.

…

“COME ONE, COME ALL, TO THE ELIMINATION OF THE DECADE!” möbius declared. “HELVETICA FINALLY LOSES!!!”

“y’know, sir, helvetica did technically lose the first challenge along with yim yum,” origin corrected.

“SAME DIFFERENCE. ANYWAY…”

triangle and square seemed much calmer than they had the day prior, but triangle looked incredibly tired. origin couldn’t tell if this fatigue was physical or mental – or both. either way, the two seemed to have softened.

incredibly, parallelogram was chatting with heptagon. 

droplet and star were walking hand in hand.

and helvetica, most uncharacteristically of all, was full of unease. trapezoid, hexagon, and pentagon were all holding hands, their faces tense and brows knitted; well, trapezoid and hexagon looked worried anyway – pentagon didn’t look troubled at all. 

octagon, meanwhile, kept to herself, away from the rest of the team she had grown so fond of. her expression was bitter and anxious, her face drawn with stress.

“IT’S TIME FOR ONE OF YOU LOVELIES TO LEAVE! AND WHO WILL IT BE?”

octagon kept shaking her head. NO, her mind screamed. NO NO NO NO NO NO.

“SAY GOODBYE TO… PENTAGON!”

“NO!” everyone in helvetica cried. octagon fell to her knees. 

hexagon and trapezoid squeezed their little friend’s hands. pentagon looked shocked, but not upset.

“this can’t be happening,” hexagon sobbed. “tell me i’m dreaming, trapezoid. tell me this isn’t real!”

trapezoid sniffed. “i’m sorry.”

“C’MON, TWINKLE! TAKE HER AWAY…”

origin hesitated, but then started to buzz. pentagon was drawn towards him.

“oh,” she gasped.

“PENTAGON!” trapezoid and hexagon cried. octagon was silent.

“for if you did you’d see that i have had a bite to eat~!” pentagon sang as she vanished, chuckling.

that song, octagon thought. that stupid song is the cause of all of this. that stupid song!

“OKEY DOKEY FOLKEYS…” möbius cut through the tension in the air like scissors through a taut rubber band. “IT’S TIME FOR SOME NEW TEAMS!!! ARRANGE YOURSELVES INTO THREE TEAMS OF THREE.”

square and triangle stayed together; as did heptagon and parallelogram, and the remaining members of helvetica.

“i guess we’ll have to split up,” star sighed.

“aw, now i’ll have to miss you too!” droplet cried. “i don’t want to leave you, star!”

“i know, i don’t want to leave you either… but it’ll be okay.”

“you sure?”

“you’ll do great! i’m sure of it.”

“okay…” droplet looked at the remnants of group two and yim yum. “i guess i’ll join square and triangle.”

“then i’ll join heptagon and parallelogram. good luck, bud!”

“you too!” 

the two friends held hands one last time before joining their new teams.

“THAT WAS FAST. WHAT WILL YOU ALL CALL YOURSELVES?”

“hey, droplet,” triangle greeted. “you’re the one who found the power of two back in the first challenge, right?”

“she sure is,” square answered. “welcome to the team, droplet!”

droplet looked nervous, but she smiled. “how about our team name combines all of our names? like our initials?”

“D, S, T…” square murmured. “how about ‘go the DSTance’?”

that’s so cringy, triangle thought. i like it. “perfect!” she exclaimed.

“how about…” star suggested to his new team, “‘the homeslices’?”

“that’s terrible,” parallelogram said. “but it’s better than ‘the cool kids’ or ‘yim yum’ or whatever. how’d we even come up with those?”

heptagon shrugged.

“AND YOU, HELVETICA? WILL YOU STILL BE HELVETICA?”

“no!” hexagon wailed. “we’re nothing without pentagon!!!”

“UH. OKAY.” möbius wrote “nothing without pentagon” down. “SO, UH, I’D START THE CHALLENGE NOW, BUT TWINKLE ISN’T BACK YET FOR WHATEVER REASON. SO I GUESS WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT LIKE WE USED TO.”

and so the new teams got to settle in. 

“what do you think of the allegory of the cave?” parallelogram asked. “i think generally speaking it makes sense, but the idea that there’s some absolute truth that just, well, exists out there is kind of shocking to me. i don’t think i necessarily agree with that.”

“maybe there are no true ‘forms’?” heptagon postulated. “maybe it’s just a way to put an end-goal to something that doesn’t truly have one.”

“yeah… we all want to know everything, even though we know we can’t… hm, hey, are you excited for today’s challenge? you’ve been doing really well in them lately. you too, star.”

“thanks…!” star said, his voice slightly confused. heptagon sighed.

“anything i can do to help…” heptagon muttered.

“hey möbius,” square called.

“YES?”

“if we’ve changed teams around, what are the sleeping arrangements?”

“WELL… NOTHING WITHOUT PENTAGON WILL STAY IN THE HELVETICA CABIN. THE HOMESLICES WILL BE IN THE YIM YUM CABIN AND GO THE DSTANCE WILL BE IN THE GROUP TWO CABIN.”

“gotcha.”

origin finally reappeared, ready to broadcast.

“OKAY EVERYONE, TODAY’S CHALLENGE IS A RELAY RACE.”

“but we just did a race a few days ago!” triangle exclaimed.

“OH WELL! THIS TIME THE ENTIRE TEAM WILL BE INVOLVED – AS THE RACE HAS THREE LEGS. IN THE FIRST LEG, ONE MEMBER WILL CRAWL ON ALL FOURS FROM HERE TO THE CABINS. IN THE SECOND, ANOTHER MEMBER WILL RUN BACKWARDS FROM THE CABINS TO THE EDGE OF THE FOREST. IN THE THIRD, THE LAST MEMBER WILL JUST RUN REGULARLY BACK HERE. DECIDE WHO’S DOING WHAT.”

“can i do the first leg?” droplet asked.

“sure,” triangle said. “square, do you want second or third?”

“i’m fine with second.”

“okey doke.”

“i’m fine with whatever,” heptagon said in a monotone voice. “whatever you need me to do…”

“okay then, can you do the first leg?” parallelogram asked.

“sure…”

“okay! then i’ll do third.”

“second it is,” star confirmed.

octagon looked at her teammates, who were murmuring to one another. “hey,” she called, “who wants to do what?”

but they were too busy… murmuring.

“hey, octagon…” hexagon’s voice was soft. “...do you wanna talk?”

“we don’t have time for this!” octagon exclaimed. “guys, we have a challenge!”

“octagon…” trapezoid’s voice trailed off as he patted hexagon’s shoulder. 

octagon shook her head. “i guess it’s all up to me then…”

“OKEY DOKEY, FIRST RUNNERS!” octagon, droplet, and heptagon lined up and dropped down to their arms and legs. “ON YOUR MARKS… GET SET… GO!” he turned to origin. “now, about the order for the new teams…”

droplet burst ahead of the other two – she wasn’t very fast, but she was able to spring ahead at first.

octagon and heptagon were neck and neck; both seemed to be going as fast as they possibly could out of some kind of desperation, and they soon overtook droplet.

“c’mon, droplet!” triangle exclaimed from near the cabins. “you can do it!”

droplet bit her lip and kept going. this won’t be like the last race, she thought. i’m gonna win it for my team!

octagon slowed down a bit and droplet was able to pass her. heptagon reached the cabins first and tagged star, who noticed the sad look on his face. droplet arrived just after him and tagged triangle, who high-fived her. “nice going!”

let’s go, let’s go! octagon thought to herself. you gotta catch up!

she finally reached the cabins and stood up. triangle had already gone a long way – she was known for her speed, even if now she was going backwards. star was a few feet behind her.

octagon shook herself and got going, running backwards as fast as she could; she soon passed star, who had tripped. 

triangle went towards him. “okay, get up, idiot.” she grabbed his hand and helped him, before continuing.

hexagon and trapezoid were still sitting by möbius strip, holding hands and talking.

“ARE YOU TWO UH. ARE YOU TWO GONNA DO SOMETHING OR…?”

“listen, this is a hard blow,” trapezoid said defensively. “let us grieve.”

“LOOK, PENTAGON’S NOT DEAD. AND OCTAGON’S DOING JUST FINE, SO WHY AREN'T YOU?"

trapezoid blinked and looked away. “octagon’s different…”

octagon rolled her eyes at triangle. i’m able to pass her now, she thought. but triangle was so quick that she was able to speed past octagon again, even after stopping to help star. “darn!” octagon spat. 

triangle finally reached the edge of the forest, where square was waiting. “hey,” she said.

“hey,” he said.

they paused.

“i’m sorry.”

“for what?”

“what isn’t there for me to be sorry for?”

star reached the forest and tagged parallelogram, who started running back to möbius strip. 

octagon paused by the forest to catch her breath. triangle and square were just… walking. and talking. octagon glowered at them.

“if there’s anybody you should apologize to, it’s circle and rectangle,” square said.

“i know! but i can’t. you’re the only one here. so i might as well apologize to you.”

“so…?”

“i’m sorry for being so horrible to you. and it’s all because of this stupid show! i wanted to go to the third dimension so bad, i almost… i almost forgot about us.”

“about us?”

“us, our friendship. i’ve known you and your brother and circle since forever. but that all vanished… i was so hyped for this new, shiny, exciting prize that i dropped everything i already had for it.”

“and now you can never really pick it up again…”

triangle and square strolled slowly, their footsteps as tentative as their words.

“i don’t know if circle and rectangle will ever forgive me. i don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me.” triangle paused and looked square in the eye.

square reciprocated her gaze, but said nothing.

“but either way, nothing will ever be the same,” triangle continued. “all because i wanted to be anywhere but here.”

“triangle…”

“i guess i never realized that if i did win, if i did go to the third dimension… i would be going alone.”

octagon finally got going again. “don’t do this to yourselves!” she yelled to triangle and square as she passed. “run, you idiots!”

neither responded.

parallelogram was almost back to möbius strip, where his teammates were waiting for him.

“parry! parry! woo!!!” star cheered. heptagon waved half-heartedly.

“AND THE HOMESLICES ARE SAFE!” möbius strip proclaimed as parallelogram met with star and heptagon. “WHO WILL IT BE NEXT? GO THE DSTANCE OR NOTHING WITHOUT PENTAGON?”

"awesome job, both of you!" parallelogram exclaimed, high-fiving his teammates. 

"mhm…" heptagon furrowed his brow.

octagon kept running at breakneck speed, even though she felt like her legs could fall off, fueled half by a desire to win and half by anger towards her teammates.

i'm just as sad about pentagon's elimination as they are! she thought. doesn't mean i get to mope around! they should thank me once i save them from elimination! 

"i don't think i want to win anymore," triangle murmured.

"droplet does," square responded. triangle ran. 

"NOW THIS IS DRAMA!" möbius cackled as triangle and octagon both approached the end of the race. "YES. YES!"

"c'mon sucker, out of the way!" triangle was a few feet from octagon.

"no thanks." and with that octagon crossed the finish line. triangle was a second too late.

"AND WITH THAT, NOTHING WITHOUT PENTAGON IS SAFE, AND GO THE DSTANCE IS UP FOR ELIMINATION – AND, UNSURPRISINGLY, IT'S SQUARE'S FAULT."

"no, it's mine," triangle stated. "it always has been."

"oh, shut up," square countered. "don't hog the blame all to yourself. sharing is caring, after all. it's our fault."

"aw darn, but i wanted to be eliminated!"

"too bad."

"as long as it isn't me," droplet said sheepishly.

"oh, yeah, darn. so sorry for losing, droplet…"

"only apologize if i get out." she smiled. "otherwise you're all clear."

"for the first time in forever! ha."

parallelogram shook his head. "i cannot believe i won a race against triangle of all people. triangle!"

star shrugged. "hey, it could've been worse. at least we didn't have pentagon still around for helvetica…"

"TOO SOON!" hexagon wailed.

"shhshh…" trapezoid soothed. "it's okay."

"i did it," octagon whispered. her voice grew louder. "I DID IT! I BEAT TRIANGLE AND SAVED US FROM ELIMINATION ALL BY MYSELF!" and with that she raised her fist in triumph – and it went through möbius strip.

…through? through? 

octagon's hand went under part of this strange loop and over another. octagon's hand went through möbius strip.

"octagon." origin's voice was grave. "what. did. you. do."

"w-what do you mean, i–" octagon's arm began to lift… off of the face of the world. out of the 2nd dimension. 

"NO!" möbius yelled. "YOU IDIOT! NOW I'M GONNA GO BACK TO–"

and möbius strip vanished. octagon's arm snapped back. 

"...what the heck just happened?" parallelogram asked.

"well, um, huh…" origin started. "...how much do you all know about möbius strip?"

"not much," square replied. "we just saw him in his ad and accepted immediately cuz, y'know, 3rd dimension."

"well, that's the thing. möbius strip is from the 3rd dimension. he's just able to come here out of a strange technicality: like all of you, he only has one edge and one side. but he isn't supposed to be here, which is why he kind of… glitches. he certainly can't be properly observed by any of you. he's… an anomaly."

"so why did he get sent back?" droplet asked.

"well, octagon here accidentally broke a law of physics… you see, things can only go through other things in the 3rd dimension. the universe had to fix that little error… so it sent him back.”

heptagon had a strangely hopeful expression. "is the show canceled?"

"nope. möbius will come back soon… and until then, i can host!"

"oh… okay…"

octagon looked back at her teammates. they hadn’t even looked up.

“what is wrong with you people?” she cried. “you care about nothing besides pentagon!” octagon stormed off.

“we care about you, too…” trapezoid whispered into thin air.

…

“hey guys! wanna learn a fun song?” pentagon exclaimed.

“pentagon…” circle murmured. 

“are you okay?” kite asked.

“huh? yeah. there was this really funny song hexagon taught us, and–”

oval approached the little shape. “pentagon, you just got eliminated.”

“i know.”

“aren’t you upset?”

“not really. i came here to have fun, and i did! though i… i do miss the others, now that i think about it…”

“well, you’ll get to see them in a sec.”

pentagon was amazed by the 10x10 screen. “i can see the whole challenge from here!”

“yup!” heart said. “it’s a lot of fun to watch.”

“speak for yourself…” rectangle muttered.

“hey, could you come here, rectangle?” circle said.

“what?”

“triangle and square… aren’t screaming at each other.”

“...oh.”

pentagon was happy to see her teammates – but her mood soured. “golly, they really miss me… now they aren’t having fun at all…”

circle laughed, half sadly. “don’t worry. they’ll get over you eventually…”

rhombus gazed at octagon. she’s really the only sane one there, they thought, and yet she seems just as emotional as them…

the outcome of the race, however, was the biggest surprise of all.

kite laughed and translated over to circle and rectangle. “i’m sorry, heh, i’m incredibly proud of him for doing so – but how in primes’ name did parallelogram beat triangle in a race?”

rectangle’s voice was distant. “triangle finally slowed down…”

circle moved closer to him.

“hey, wait, look!” pentagon exclaimed. there was octagon, her hand… lifting?

everyone was speechless.

the dark of night swept over hexagon’s eyes, but she was not asleep. she was standing in the middle of the field alone.

she’s gone, she thought. she’s really gone.

suddenly, hexagon noticed something sitting on the ground. as she approached, she realized it was octagon’s pacifier. her breath caught, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

you aren’t a monster, hexagon, she thought to herself. it’s just a competition. you had a reason to clinch the win for yourself. after all, do you really think möbius strip would have let you tie? no. you’re not a monster. you’re not a monster. you’re not a monster.

“but what if i am?” she asked aloud. she picked up the pacifier and held it gingerly, as if guilt poured out of it into her shaky hands. 

“what if you’re what?” a voice asked.

hexagon turned around sharply to see star standing behind her.

“are you okay?” he asked.

“...huh? oh? i’m fine.”

“do you wanna come back to our cabin? it must be lonely sleeping all by yourself.”

hexagon looked away again. “no, it’s fine. i’m fine.”

“what are you doing out here so late?”

“i could ask you the same thing.”

“well… i first went to your cabin to check on you, but you weren’t there, so… i found you here!”

“hm.”

“now answer my question, dude! why are you out here? and how do you feel about the final?”

“...i was just taking a walk. clearing my head. and i dunno… it’s the final, i guess?”

“me personally?” star grinned. “i’m pumped! this is gonna be a lot of fun. i wonder what the challenge is gonna be! darn… hey, are you sure you’re good? i think you should get some sleep. tomorrow’s gonna be a big day!”

hexagon furrowed her brow.

“and hey, you can join square and i in our swag cabin if you’d like…!”

“...why are you talking to me?”

star blinked. “huh?”

“why are you asking me if i’m okay, or if i want to go to bed…? why do you care about what i’m doing?”

“...because you’re my opponent!”

“but you should be sleeping yourself! you should be making sure you’re okay! in any event, it’s better for you if i’m not!”

“you know i wouldn’t like that… it should be a fair fight! and either way, you’ve been so nice to all of us for the entire show, so you deserve the same.”

hexagon shook her head. “what’s the point of being nice to me? we’re supposed to be enemies.”

star smiled. “i think you know the point of being nice, bromeister. aaaaanyway… i dunno what you’re up to, but i’m gonna go to bed. feel free to come with… either way, good night and good luck! i’m sure you’ll do great tomorrow!”

he turned and began to leave. 

“...wait,” hexagon blurted.

star turned, still smiling. “changed your mind?”

hexagon squeezed the pacifier tight in her hand. “...i’ll come with you. i need the sleep.”

…

“ARE YOU DONE YET?” möbius strip asked.

origin turned around. “just finished!” he had been generating the materials for the final challenge: three large rooms, each bedecked with a strange variety of items.

“THANK THE PRIMES. OKEY DOKE!!! GET THOSE GUYS OVER HERE.”

“sure, sir… hey, am i allowed to let the eliminated contestants out of the paradox so they can watch in person?”

“NO… THEY MIGHT INTERFERE.”

origin sighed. “okay… i’ll go get square, hexagon, and star…”

he first translated over to helvetica’s old cabin, expecting to find hexagon inside. he manifested a hand and knocked on the door.

“hello?” he called. but there was no response. upon opening the door, he found the cabin empty.

confused, he went over to square and star’s cabin and knocked on the door. when he opened it, he found hexagon asleep with the others. he was glad to see them all being chummy enough with one another to sleep in the same room despite being opponents.

“wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!” origin sang, rousing the contestants. 

“morning already?” square asked groggily, eyes half-lidded. 

star yawned.

“indeed it is,” origin said gently. “rise and shine, everyone! the final challenge will start soon.”

hexagon opened her eyes suddenly, without any languidness, as if she hadn’t been asleep in the first place. she briskly got out of bed and followed origin outside, octagon’s pacifier in hand. 

after a couple of minutes the three little polygons had arrived in the field, where möbius strip was waiting.

hexagon eyed the strange structures before her. “what are these?”

“THIS WILL BE YOUR FINAL CHALLENGE,” möbius strip answered. “AN ESCAPE ROOM!”

star and square exchanged glances.

“THERE ARE THREE IDENTICAL ROOMS BEFORE YOU, COURTESY OF TWINKLE. EACH OF YOU WILL BE LOCKED IN ONE OF THESE ROOMS, WHICH CONTAIN CLUES ON HOW TO ESCAPE. THE FIRST ONE OUT WINS THE RACE TO THE THIRD DIMENSION!”

hexagon balled her fist around the pacifier. this is it, she thought. you better make it count. you better make it all worth it…

“you all ready?” origin asked the contestants.

“YOU BETTER BE!” möbius interjected. “TWINKY, LET THEM INSIDE!!!!”

apparently, the doors to the escape rooms could be easily opened from the outside but not the inside; origin manifested three hands, which he used to open all three doors at once, letting all three contestants into their rooms. he promptly shut the doors after them, locking them inside.

“I SHOULD MENTION HOW THE WALLS ARE SOUNDPROOF, SO YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO HEAR EACH OTHER… OF COURSE, I’M LOUD ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN STILL HEAR ME, XD. NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

all three got to work.

star looked around. the items furnishing the room were odd: a radio; a tv; a remote; two chairs stacked one on the other by the wall; a rock; an empty picture frame. at first he just stood there gazing at his surroundings, but then he shook himself.

you gotta get going! he thought to himself.

square approached the empty picture frame first. on the bottom it had an inscription saying “104.3”. 

“oh, that’s the classic rock station on the radio,” he realized. he smiled, thinking of droplet. “i bet star won’t know that, haha… anyway, what does it mean?”

then he glanced over and noticed the rock.

hexagon turned on the tv: the weather channel was on. 

“another lukewarm day in geometropolis!” the shape on tv announced. “mid 60s, no precipitation, low winds. just another lazy summer day…”

hexagon noticed a little card sitting by the tv: it was one of those tv channel menus you find at hotels. weirdly enough, instead of just listing the channels, the menu had times written down, and the word “up” below all of them. next to channel 4 was “2:30”; next to channel 5 was “11:00”; next to channel 6 was “4:45”. hexagon squinted and glanced over at the radio, which said it was 10:37.

“am i really meant to wait half an hour to watch something on channel 5?” she asked herself, before picking up the tv remote. “maybe not…”

star was tossing the rock between his hands as he went about the room; he then set it down to more properly assess the chairs. they were stacked in the corner, so star removed the top one and set it down beside the other. 

“can’t help but wonder what kinda clues would be on a chair,” he muttered. “i guess i can sit down on one? that’s something.”

he proceeded to sit down. and he proceeded to think. i don’t really know what i’m doing, do i? i’ve never been the type for this sort of challenge… i bet rhombus or droplet would be great at this. they’re both really observant. and so is heart. huh…

he grabbed the rock again and stood up, wandering around more. star then spotted the inscription on the picture frame.

“what on earth is ‘104.3’ supposed to mean? maybe if i turn it over…” star recalled how, in school, heart used to type out 0.7734 and turn it upside down to say ‘hello’. “e-h-o-i? ehoi??”

star bit his lip. “guess i’ll just try sticking this number anywhere i can to see if it’ll do anything…” and so he made his way to the tv.

hexagon pressed the ‘guide’ button on the remote and flipped to channel 4; she then scrolled to see what was gonna be on at 2:30. “square roots and you.” she flipped to channel 5, and scrolled to 11:00. “integer interviews with cardioid.” finally, she flipped to channel 6, and scrolled to 4:45. “tessellation: will you ever find that special someone?” 

she smiled at the last one. “hexagons can tessellate with a bunch of shapes… but anyway. square roots and you, integer interviews with cardioid, tessellation…” she put her hands on her hips. “what do i make of that?”

hexagon paused. “s, i, t… ah! sit!”

she put the pacifier in her mouth (to free up her hands), grabbed one of the chairs, set it down, and sat on it. 

“...what now?”

square turned on the radio and flipped to 104.3; they were playing golden slumbers by the binomials. 

“mm,” he murmured. “love this one… but what does the rock have to do with it?”

he bent down and picked up the rock. like almost all rocks, it was angular and gray. square gently tapped the radio with it, and nothing happened.

“rock… and roll? maybe i roll it?” square sent the rock rolling on the floor, but, angular as it was, it didn’t go very far. “darn. hm… i’ll come back to you later, rock.”

square put the rock down beside the radio, and made his way to the tv. he turned it on; it was on the city drive live channel.

“y’know, why do they call it city drive live?” he asked rhetorically. “geometropolis is barely a city, if it even is one.”

he began flipping through the channels, but ended up returning to city drive live. perhaps there was a clue in the channel the tv was set to at the beginning?

square decided to sit down as he watched. he clambered up the stack of chairs and sat on the top one. as he did so, one of his corners grazed the wall. he looked just north of him to see a tiny dent in that part of the wall.

“oops, did i make that?” square felt it with his hand, but realized it wasn’t the right shape to be made by one of his angles. he then heard a soft click as his hand brushed past it, but nothing happened. “is this… the keyhole?”

star had tested out 104.3 on the tv and the clock, but he soon realized that such a number wouldn’t do anything on those devices. he made his way over to the radio and turned it on, tossing the rock in one hand. he saw that the station had a decimal number.

“nice!!!” he exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. but… which fist?

the rock went flying out of his hand and landed right on top of the radio, crushing it to bits!

“aaah!” star cried. “nooooo!!!” he frowned – he just destroyed what was likely an important clue! he wasn’t even able to get to the right station yet!

he put the rock aside and tried to put the radio fragments back together. then he noticed a gleaming gray piece he hadn’t seen before – a strangely shaped piece of metal.

“the key!!!!!!!!!!!!”

hexagon got up from her chair and picked up the channel menu again. “s… i… t… up? sit up? but i was sitting up…”

she glanced back at the chair she had been sitting in, which was in front of the chair it had been on top of. 

her eyes brightened. “i guess i wasn’t sitting as ‘up’ as i could’ve been!” she put the chair back over the other, which she then sat on again. now her top edge was right up against the north wall, where she felt a little notch and heard a little click.

“ah! so there’s the keyhole! hm, now where’s the key… i suppose i haven’t looked at the picture frame yet, have i…”

she got down from her perch and approached the empty picture frame. “104.3,” she said to herself. “sounds like a radio station! i’ll try that out…” and from there she approached the radio.

square was pacing around the room. “key, key, key… where in primes’ name is that key…”

suddenly he tripped over the rock. “i hate rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he cried. he then picked himself up again and chuckled. “funny that i like rock music, then…”

he turned and glared at the radio, which was still playing the binomials. now they were on let it be.

“are they doing twofers? nice.”

square proceeded to go around the room and sort through every item, to see if he could find any trace of the key.

“nothing behind the picture frame… nothing behind the clock… nothing behind the chairs… nothing behind the tv…” he picked up the radio. “nothing behind the radio either… ugh!” 

hexagon turned the radio to 104.3 and listened closely. “the binomials… this must be a rock station. or maybe it’s specifically for 70s songs? i guess i should listen for the next song to make sure.”

lucky for her, the song was just ending. then arithmetic idiot by green day came on. 

“okay, this is definitely not a 70s station! it must be a rock station after all. maybe that explains…?”

hexagon picked up the rock by her feet.

star, meanwhile, was still overjoyed from his happy little accident. he went over to the door, expecting to find the keyhole there. however, there was none. he scratched his head and turned around.

“oh, keyhole!!! come out, come out, wherever you are!!!!!!”

he noticed a teeny-tiny dent in the wall behind the tv.

“gotcha!” star shoved the key inside, but nothing happened. the dent was too small for the key. “i guess this isn’t it…”

he began to stick the key into any little nook and cranny he could find… and still nothing worked.

square was annoyed. square was frustrated. at this point, he didn’t care if he didn’t win; he just wanted to get out of that stupid room! he picked up the rock and threw it at the door. the rock bounced off and flew past his face.

“haha! you didn’t get me this time, rock!”

crash! then it hit the radio.

“...oh.”

square groaned and sat down, defeated.

hexagon steadied the rock in one hand. “well, there’s rock on the radio… so i’ll put a rock on the radio!” with that she threw it down onto the radio, which burst into pieces. a glimmer of light reflected off of one of these pieces, catching hexagon’s eye. she then grabbed it in her hand. it was the key!

“yes!” she exclaimed, scaling the chairs once again. she stuck the key in the dent in the wall, and it fit all the way inside.

click! 

hexagon ran to the door, which was now unlocked. she slammed it open and ran outside. there was no sign of square or star. she took the pacifier out of her mouth.

“yes!” hexagon cried. “yes, i did it! i won, i really won!!!!!!”

“congrats, hexagon!” origin cheered, clapping with manifested hands.

“you really did win,” möbius strip said, translating near her. “...what did i say would happen?”

her eyes widened. 

meanwhile, star was fiddling with the key near the chairs.

“this teeny-weeny hole won’t work… ah, how about that one?” he clumsily shoved the key into a dent in the wall.

click!

“wait… was that it?” 

star turned around and approached the door. and wouldn’t you know it, the darned thing was unlocked!

“huh!” 

he left his room and saw hexagon standing outside her own. she had… a mortified expression?

“i guess i didn’t win, did i?” star said to himself, smiling slightly. 

“you got second place, though!” origin said. “that’s wonderful!”

star noticed that the big shape had his camera lens on. “hey, can the eliminated contestants see me right now?”

“they sure can!”

star beamed. “hi guys!!! hi heptagon, and parallelogram, and oval, and rhombus, and droplet, and… and heart.” his face fell slightly, but only for a moment. “i’m a winner.”

“no you’re not!” a voice behind him cried. “hexagon’s right there!”

star turned around. it was square, who finally made it out. star grabbed him and gave him a hug. “this guy’s a winner too, guys! we’re all winners!!!”

square chuckled and pushed him away. “you’re an idiot.” 

“at least i solved that escape room before you did!”

“then we’re both idiots.” and then square hugged him back.

“winners? idiots? we have so many titles, it’s insane.”

origin glowed, happy to broadcast this to the paradox.

“HEY TWINKLE!” möbius called. “STOP FOCUSING ON THE LOSERS. GET A LOAD OF THE WINNER!!!!!!”

origin begrudgingly did as his boss said. square then looked over and noticed hexagon’s expression.

“i think…” he mumbled, “i think something’s wrong.”

star and square followed origin.

“AND SO WE CONCLUDE OUR STORY,” möbius began once origin arrived, speaking mainly to the eliminated contestants. “AS A WISE MAN ONCE SAID… FINDERS KEEPERS, LOSERS WEEPERS. DON’T CRY ABOUT LOSING. CRY ABOUT BEING DUMB ENOUGH FOR SOMEBODY TO BEAT YOU. CRY ABOUT BEING GULLIBLE ENOUGH FOR SOMEBODY TO TRICK YOU. CRY ABOUT BEING STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE FRIENDSHIP IS REAL. ONLY THE REAL GENIUSES, LIKE HEXAGON HERE, CAN TRULY WIN A COMPETITION. ISN’T THAT RIGHT, HEXAGON?”

hexagon was shaking. she said nothing.

“YES. SHE WAS ALWAYS GOING TO WIN. THAT’S HOW LIFE WORKS. LOL! SUCKS TO SUCK, LOSERS!!! IN A FEW DAYS YOU’LL GO BACK TO YOUR REGULAR LIVES, YOUR PATHETIC LIVES. MAYBE ONE DAY A CHANCE LIKE THIS WILL COME AGAIN. WOULD YOU DESTROY EACH OTHER OVER IT? DESTROY YOURSELVES? HISTORY DOESN’T LIE. YOU WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AND YOU KNOW IT, YET YOU KILL TO HEAR THE OPPOSITE TOLD TO YOU. YOU SCUM. YOU WRETCHED, PRIME-FORSAKEN SCUM. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE LIE WHILE IT LASTED. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SHOW.”

square and star stepped closer.

“möbius strip?” square gasped. “the hell?”

“SAY GOODBYE TO THIS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL WORLD, HEXAGON! THAT’S ALL, FOLKS!!!”

hexagon stared at origin as möbius descended upon her, clutching the pacifier she held. “octagon, i–”

“do it, twinkle,” möbius growled, interrupting her.

origin cut him open with a pair of scissors.

FLASH! möbius strip opened into a strip… a 3D strip.

möbius and hexagon disappeared.

the race for the 3rd dimension was over.

hexagon had won.

…

“what do you think she was about to say to you?”

“i don’t know. i don’t care. she’s gone anyway. it’s all over.”

“hey, guys?” origin piped up. “i’m gonna let you all out of the paradox. but the contract says you have to stick around on the show grounds for a few more days.”

“how many?” heptagon asked.

“four, i think? …okay everyone, get ready…” then origin began to buzz, and the eliminated contestants stuck to his edge. they all flashed out of the paradox.

star and square were still standing outside the escape rooms, stunned. the two had been accompanied by origin until he suddenly disappeared for the paradox.

square heard a buzzing noise, and turned around to see origin again – with everyone else! star followed his gaze.

“hi, winners,” origin greeted. “sorry for leaving you here before, i just had to make sure these guys were okay after… all that.”

“just for the record,” parallelogram spoke up, “we’re not.”

“anyway, star, could you go get the grapher for me?”

star glanced at square, who nodded and ran back to their cabin. he soon returned with the remote. 

“bombs away, origin,” he said.

origin released all of the shapes, and square blasted them all with a beam of light. as each got hit, their limbs returned. 

“so that’s where it’s been!” rhombus exclaimed. 

square then dropped the grapher and immediately ran into rectangle, circle, and triangle for a hug.

star, meanwhile, stood still. he was soon knocked over by droplet, heptagon, and parallelogram.

“buddy!” parallelogram chuckled. “look at you, mister 2nd place! that’s awesome!”

droplet grinned and glanced over at square. “you two are amazing!!!!”

star smiled and laughed.

heart was watching from afar. he took a deep breath and approached him.

“long time no see,” star said before heart could even open his mouth.

“hi,” heart replied.

“...i’m sorry for being a bad friend. i hope i’ve become a better person in the meantime.”

“i hope s-so too.”

star smiled. “i’ve learned a lot since i turned pink.”

“and i’ve learned a lot since i made you that way… hey, why don’t we start over?”

“yeah?”

“okay, so… hi! um, my name is h-heart.”

“hello, heart, nice to meet you! say, what do you like to do in your free time?”

“i like to sing and play video games. how about you?” suddenly heart’s face fell. “...i’m just now realizing that i’ve never a-actually known your hobbies. oh my primes…”

star grinned. “i don’t know what i like to do in my free time, actually. i’m finding out!”

“i guess you’re a new person to the both of us.”

“indeed i am!”

“i’ll see you around…! hey, i n-never caught your name, new f-friend!”

“it’s star.”

“star. i like it!”

“i like it too. wow, who knew we had so much in common.”

heart chuckled, beaming. 

“square!!!” droplet exclaimed, running over to him. “you did so well!!!!”

square made room for her beside his other friends. “thanks! hey, wait a minute… droplet, are you thinking what i’m thinking?” he eyed star.

droplet giggled. “of course i am!”

square whispered what he had in mind to triangle, rectangle, and circle. the five of them crowded around star.

“you’re insecure, don’t know what for,” they began to sing. “you’re turning heads when you walk through the door~! don’t need makeup to cover up, being the way that you are is enough~!”

star groaned.

“everyone else in the world can see it,” they continued, kite and oval joining in, “everyone else but you~!”

“will you never let me live that down?”

“BABY YOU LIGHT UP MY WORLD LIKE NOBODY ELSE!” group two, yim yum, and the cool kids (minus star) all belted. “THE WAY THAT YOU FLIP YOUR HAIR GETS ME OVERWHELMED! BUT WHEN YOU SMILE AT THE GROUND IT AIN’T HARD TO TELL… YOU DON’T KNOW, OH-OH! YOU DON’T KNOW YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL!!!!” 

they all collapsed in a fit of laughter, star included.

origin glowed as he watched them mingle and chat as the daylight faded. some of these contestants had a record of being bitter and frustrated with the challenge – which should reasonably have been heightened given those horrible things möbius strip had said! – but instead of whining and wailing they were happy. they were together, so they were happy.

“borromean rings indeed,” he said to himself.

however, not everyone was happy. the remains of helvetica were standing off to the side, not talking to their fellow contestants.

octagon’s face, as expected, was lined with anger, loneliness, and despair. seeing this, trapezoid tried to console her.

“want to take one of our nightly walks again?” he asked.

her face suddenly softened. “yes. please.”

pentagon took her by the hand. “then let’s go!”

heptagon approached origin as the three left for the forest. “um… is it possible for me to go home now?”

origin looked at him intently. “y’know what? i want to keep you guys around, just in case something happens in the next few days allotted in the contract. however… möbius isn’t around, so i’ll make an exception for you.”

heptagon’s face brightened. “you’ll take me back?”

“...i think it’d be best if you went by yourself. how about you go say goodbye?”

heptagon’s face suddenly clouded. “oh…” he inhaled sharply and went over to the other contestants.

new days in geometropolis don’t tend to imply new beginnings… despite its name, this place was more of a town than a city; it was quaint and predictable. the monochromatic grid of every shape’s life was routine and stable, a flat, two-dimensional space where they could live out their mildest fantasies; every path in life was simple, rule-abiding, and carefully calculated.

this day, however, was different. this day was one of transformation.

in the morning, square wasn’t doing any sort of transformation at all; instead, he was sitting languidly on the couch at home, absently watching television. he was flipping through channels when his little brother, rectangle, entered the room with a smile. 

“they’re done!” rectangle announced, holding up a tray of mathematicookies – delicious, number-filled mathematicookies – square’s favorite.

square thanked him; he grabbed one and, without even looking at it, said, “these are store bought.” 

“you know i can’t bake…” his brother replied sheepishly.

as square continued channel-hopping, a striking advertisement came on – “DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE THIRD DIMENSION?” a strange shape on screen asked. but square changed channels again before either him or his brother could answer the alluring question.

“hey wait, turn back!” rectangle exclaimed. square did so, as rectangle leaned towards the tv in interest.

“DO YOU WANT TO GO ON ADVENTURES, HAVE FUN, AND BE FAMOUS?” the ad continued, beckoning the viewer.

rectangle nodded with newfound energy. “doesn’t that sound cool?” he now leaned towards his older brother, a gleam in his eye.

“sure.”

“THEN JOIN THE COMPETITION! CALL THE NUMBER ON-SCREEN NOW! WITH A SMALL SIGN-UP FEE OF ONLY 50 DIGITS, YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO HAVE AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME! by signing up you agree to stay on show premises for the full allotted time of 20 days.”

rectangle quickly grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed 123-456-7890. and so did many others… why, this was likely the first interesting thing to ever happen in geometropolis.

“hello? good morning… yes, i’d like to sign up for the race to the third dimension. huh? yes. and i’m signing up my brother square, too.”

after finishing the sign-up process, rectangle sighed in relief and put the phone back. he was never the biggest fan of phone calls.

RING RING RING! rectangle fell backwards in shock as the phone tormented him with its chime. 

square picked up the phone in his stead. “hello?”

“hey man!!!” it was triangle! “long time no see! lmao.”

“yeah. did you hear about this ‘race to the 3rd dimension’ thing?”

“oh yeah. crazy, right? circle and i signed up, and i’m planning on winning.”

“cool. rectangle and i are in as well.”

“nice!”

as triangle was chatting on the phone, she heard a strange buzzing coming from north of her house. she stepped outside, curious, only to be dragged towards a giant shape she had never seen before – which was surprising, considering how small geometropolis’s population was. this shape was a golden four-pointed star, like a twinkle of light.

“hey!” triangle exclaimed as she stuck to his edge – and then her limbs vanished. what was going on? the already crazy day was getting crazier by the second.

square stared at the phone in his hand. it had been a while since triangle responded. “...hello?” he glanced back at rectangle, who shrugged.

suddenly, rectangle started hearing a buzzing sound as well. he left the house, and…

“woah!” rectangle yelped as he got stuck onto this strange, other-wordly shape. his limbs vanished and he noticed many other shapes along the shape’s edge as well: a trapezoid, an oval, a heart, a hexagon, a star, a droplet, a rhombus, an octagon, a pentagon, a kite, a circle (their old friend circle!), and hey, that’s where triangle went! 

square followed his brother outside, concerned, and soon the same happened to him.

this giant shape, square newly added to his collection, flew farther north, barely missing all of the houses in the way. he abruptly stopped in a clearing only marked with a sign saying, “put contestants here!”

and, with another buzz, he did – and all the shapes flew off, the heart screaming as he did so, arms and legs still nowhere to be found.

just then, the big shape left again, and after a few moments, returned, with two rather disgruntled shapes attached: a parallelogram and a heptagon.

the group – who, apparently, were all contestants for the race for the 3rd dimension – thought that the giant 4-pointed star was the most alien sight to ever grace their eyes; but then another entity came to claim that title. 

what was he? he seemed to glitch in and out of visibility, a nigh-incomprehensible, nigh-imperceptible gray loop sitting north of them beside the other shape.

“HELLO THERE, CONTESTANTS.” he was the shape from the ad! “I AM MӦBIUS STRIP. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR MONEY – I MEAN, THANK YOU ALL FOR SIGNING UP. YOU ALL GOT IN. CONGRATS.”

suddenly, the 4-pointed star manifested two hands out of thin air and started clapping. the hands promptly disappeared.

“but we didn’t even sign up!” the parallelogram protested, referring to himself and the heptagon. 

“WOW. GOOD FOR YOU :)”

mӧbius strip was holding a strange remote with an antenna. upon clicking it, everyone’s limbs reappeared.

“YOU HAVE YOUR LIMBS BACK NOW. GO AND MAKE 4 TEAMS OF 4. also you guys are trapped here for 20 days so you better like eating polynomial pasta. that’s, like, our only food.”

“good to have my arms and legs back, lol,” triangle said, standing up and stretching. she had never not had limbs before…

circle popped up and gathered his childhood friends together: rectangle, triangle, and square. “and it’s good to have you guys back, too!” he exclaimed, his smile making itself apparent in his voice. “we can be a team!” circle’s enthusiasm was infectious – even if they hadn’t hung out for a while, the friends were very excited to be together again. 

“OKAY,” mӧbius strip announced, “TEAM 1 IS CIRCLE, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, AND RECTANGLE.” 

heart and star, already knowing each other well from middle school, instantly gravitated to each other. they were the best of friends, and signed up for the race to the third dimension while hanging out at star’s that morning.

“i think we need two more people…” heart mumbled, even though he knew star wanted it to just be the two of them, like always.

star groaned, looking out at the array of shapes before them. “really? but they’re so uncool…..”

“w-well, i think rhombus and droplet are pretty cool…” heart suggested, showing the two to his best friend. rhombus looked ahead blankly, while the little droplet smiled sweetly. heart fluttered his eyelashes.

“well…” star started, his gaze flitting between them, “one’s a child and one’s a nerd… but they match our aesthetic. so sure.”

“TEAM 2 IS HEART, STAR, DROPLET, AND RHOMBUS.”

oval thought for a moment before slowly approaching kite, who was lost in thought. 

i wonder what this is going to be like? imagine if i could go to the 3rd dimension… but i can’t even fathom what that would look like…

“hey kite, wanna team up?”

“oh?” kite gasped, startled out of her daydream. “oh, sure!” 

“but who else should we have?”

“how about those two?” kite pointed to parallelogram and heptagon, who were busy moping around. they seemed to be very good at that.

oval nodded and translated over to the two. “hey, do you guys wanna join our team?”

parallelogram didn’t make eye contact. “we’ve got nothing better to do,” he sighed, with a resentful edge to his voice. heptagon said nothing, but knitted his brow further. 

“TEAM 3 IS KITE, OVAL, HEPTAGON, AND PARALLELOGRAM.”

trapezoid saw the remaining contestants: octagon, pentagon, and hexagon. the former two were fighting, while the latter was trying to stop them from killing each other. a perfectly tailored team, to be sure…

“i guess we’re the last ones, huh…” he said.

“AND TEAM 4 IS TRAPEZOID, PENTAGON, HEXAGON, AND OCTAGON… I GUESS. SORRY TRAPEZOID.”

“it’s okay…” trapezoid replied sheepishly.

soon enough, mӧbius strip had a list of team names: team 2 was named “the cool kids”, team 3 was “yim yum”, and team 4 was “helvetica”. 

“I HAVE THE NAMES FOR EVERY TEAM EXCEPT FOR TEAM 1. GIVE ME A NAME.”

“how about ‘the besties’?” rectangle quietly suggested.

“ew, no. that’s cringy,” triangle replied.

square, triangle, and rectangle began to argue about their team name; square in particular was annoyed that triangle should call his brother “cringy”. circle frowned and turned away from his friends, glancing at heart and star.

it looks like they’re getting along, anyway… he thought.

“YOU CAN’T DECIDE ON A NAME, SO WE’LL CALL YOU ‘GROUP TWO’.”

“but that doesn’t make sense!” triangle yelled. “we’re team 1, why would we be group 2??”

“SCREW YOU, THAT’S WHY!!” mӧbius concluded, leaving no more room for protestation or complaint. “…TIME FOR THE FIRST CONTEST, PLEBEIANS!”

after a long pause, mӧbius said it again: “…TIME FOR THE FIRST CONTEST, PLEBEIANS!”

“you already said that!!” parallelogram yelled.

mӧbius strip paused again, now holding multiple sheets of paper. “ahem. here are the rules for the game.” he gave the papers out to the contestants by sending them flying out amongst them.

octagon caught a sheet and sighed dreamily as she gazed at its convoluted procedure… 

heart, meanwhile, was not at all enamored by them. “this is so complicated!!!” he cried in exasperation.

“chill out, bro,” star replied casually, patting heart’s shoulder without actually looking at him. 

pentagon skipped toward mӧbius strip. “shouldn’t we set up our bunks first?” she asked.

“BE PATIENT, CHILD,” mӧbius replied drily. 

“it’s ‘be patient kiddo’,” trapezoid said, correcting the host’s apparently faulty terminology.

“kiddo’s not a real word.” heptagon muttered bitterly.

square, meanwhile, was having trouble reading the rules at all.

“what the heck is this??” he asked, looking in bewilderment towards mӧbius strip.

“CAN’T YOU READ THE RULES, CRETIN?”

“no i cannot,” square replied, finger guns and all. “what up, i’m jared, i’m 19, and i never heckin’ learned how to read!”

mӧbius strip did not reply further.

circle translated over to his friend. “i can read it to you!” he offered.

“thanks bromide.”

“the game is called ‘square up’. you will be put into two groups, two teams per group: the negatives and the positives. there is also an item called ‘the power of two’, which is hidden somewhere on the premises. the goal of the game is to turn everyone into your group: if you are a negative, to turn everyone into negatives, and if you are a positive, to turn everyone into positives. a negative can turn a positive into a negative by tagging them directly (as if multiplying a positive number by a negative number to get a negative number); likewise, a positive can only turn a negative into a positive by tapping them with ‘the power of two; (as if squaring a negative number to get a positive number). the game ends when either everyone is a negative or everyone is a positive – in which case the original members of that respective team win immunity.”

out of breath, circle fainted.

“heh…” star chuckled. “translation please?”

octagon scoffed. “sorry, i don’t speak IDIOT.” the rest of her team watched on in chagrin as she continued to mock star. “learn to appreciate the rules in all their glor–”

“quiet time.” trapezoid shoved a pacifier in octagon’s mouth.

hexagon came over, holding little pentagon’s hand. “why do you have pacifiers with you?”

“...i babysit.”

“aww!”

“quiet time.”

“AHEM,” mӧbius cleared his proverbial throat. “TIME FOR YOU TO GET READY OR WHATEVER.” he edged towards the large 4-pointed star. “‘THE POWER OF TWO’ IS ALREADY HIDDEN, RIGHT?”

the shape manifested a thumbs up.

“GROUP TWO AND THE COOL KIDS WILL BE THE POSITIVES. TWINKLE, TAKE THEM NEAR THE FOREST.”

“my name’s origin…” the 4-pointed star said under his breath. he started buzzing, and the two named teams floated towards him, losing their limbs in the process. he then flew to the east.

“YIM YUM, HELVETICA, YOU ARE THE NEGATIVES.”

origin let go of group two and the cool kids by the forest. moving slightly north, he used the same remote mӧbius strip had used before to give them back their limbs – before accidentally letting it go as well.

“ooh!” rhombus gasped, picking it up. they were fascinated by the mechanics of this strange machine…

but before rhombus could investigate the remote further, a speaker appeared in origin’s center, as mӧbius held a microphone.

“BEGIN!” mӧbius announced through his assistant.

“wow! i’m actually competing in a competition!” little droplet exclaimed, giggling eagerly. this was the first time she’d ever done anything really exciting in her life – but then, that applied to everyone else as well. 

heart patted her on the head, smiling warmly. “yup! now let’s go find that power of two’!” droplet hopped up over his head.

“did anyone see mӧbius hide it?” square asked.

“nope,” star replied carelessly. “but did anyone see where the cameras are? this is a show, right??”

triangle hit him lightly with her hand. “unimportant. let’s go find that dumb ol’ power thingy, whatever it is.”

thus group two and the cool kids headed into the dark forest, looking between the trees as they weaved through them…

meanwhile, despite being in the negative group, hexagon remained ever-positive. “c’mon gang!” she exclaimed, trying to rally her groupmates. “let’s go get the positives!” she lifted her fist in the air triumphantly, which pentagon cheekily mimicked beside her.

kite was sitting down next to parallelogram, thinking. “hm…” she glanced over at the forlorn polygons. “where do you think we should look? the positives probably went to hide.”

parallelogram just grunted. 

oval translated towards him. “what’s wrong?”

“heptagon and i aren’t supposed to be here!” he answered angrily. “we just got taken from our lives and forced to compete in this dumb show! it sucks!”

“yeah, i guess,” kite said, “but as long as you’re here you could give it a try! it sounds like fun to me. and until you can go home, it’s better than sitting around doing nothing.”

“hm.” 

octagon took the pacifier out of her mouth. “you should give it a try. the more forces we have, the better.”

“forces?” pentagon sat over octagon’s head. “what is this, an army?”

“it could be…” octagon replied ominously, shaking her fist.

“then let’s go!” oval smiled and led the group forward. “to the forest!”

as they headed east, trapezoid looked back and noticed heptagon sitting alone. trapezoid hurried over to him.

“hey buddy, you gonna join us?” he asked gently.

heptagon sneered. “what do you think?”

trapezoid sighed and looked away. “octagon’s not gonna like this,” he mumbled. then he ran after his group – “wait for me!!!” he yelled. 

the positives were traversing the wooded landscape under triangle’s leadership, searching far and wide for the elusive ‘power of two’.

rhombus piped up, “do you think it’s a good idea for us all to travel together?” they were fiddling with that strange remote they had picked up earlier.

rectangle looked uneasy, as did circle, who was sitting above him. “what, do you want us to split up?” rectangle asked.

“if we’re all together when they find us, they could tag all of us. game over.”

star laughed, walking on casually. “that doesn’t sound like an epic gamer move. lol.”

“hey, maybe you shouldn’t walk with your eyes closed,” heart suggested softly.

his friend’s only reply was “lmao”. 

soon enough, the negatives arrived at the forest’s edge.

“it’s safe to say they went in,” parallelogram stated. “it’d be harder for us to find them there, right?”

pentagon grinned, bearing pointy teeth. “well they can run, but they can’t hide!”

“c’mon!” kite said, leading parallelogram into the woods after the rest of the group.

as heart kept walking hand in hand with droplet, star kept walking with his eyes closed, despite the previous warnings. 

“hey!” circle called. “watch out!”

but he was too late – star bumped right into a tree, emitting a resounding “OOF!”

pentagon perked up at the sound.

“did you hear that?” trapezoid gasped, peeking around a bush. the rest of the negatives followed suit – and there, just beyond, were the positives by a tree!

as heart helped him up, star looked over to the west – and saw the negatives looking straight at him! “AIEEE!” he yelped.

the negatives all pounced towards the tree as the positives tried to scramble away. most were able to escape the other group’s clutches, hiding behind the surrounding brush – all except rectangle, who couldn’t make it out in time.

“help!” he cried, right as he was tagged by oval, turning him into a negative.

the rest of the positives sheltered behind trees, staying silently out of sight. among them was little droplet, quietly and curiously observing her surroundings. then she spotted a little white circle with a label on it saying “x²” –  it was the power of two! “aha!” she exclaimed quietly.

just then, pentagon, the little speed demon, sprung out of nowhere in an attempt to tag droplet! but droplet tagged her first with the power of two, turning her into a positive. 

square grabbed pentagon so she couldn’t run away, and smiled at droplet, pointing at the power of two. “you should throw it between the trees and try to hit the negatives over there,” he said in a hushed voice.

“but how would it come back to me?”

“it’ll bounce back.”

“i don’t think i can throw it that hard...”

“but i can!” triangle appeared, grabbing the power of two. droplet crouched behind triangle as she peeked from behind their tree and poised her arm to throw. triangle seemed so ready that it was as if she had been born to do this very task.

she threw the ball – and it hit oval! then it ricocheted off of him and hit trapezoid, and then octagon – three more negatives squared into positives! the power of two finally came flying back to triangle, who was grinning in anticipation as she snatched it.

triangle threw it again, this time aiming for parallelogram – but much to her dismay, the previously half-hearted shape was now laser focused, easily dodging her pitch.  

“nice!” kite cheered, high-fiving him.

triangle frowned and caught the ball as it returned to her yet again.

“can i try?” heart shyly asked her; she handed it over. 

“where did kite go?” he pondered, cautiously peering at the other group before throwing the ball. it hit parallelogram, octagon (causing her to spit out her pacifier), and rectangle – and heart smiled proudly as he caught the ball again.

just then kite hopped out of nowhere, about to tag heart!

but a beam of light shot out from behind him and hit kite, causing her to lose her limbs and fly back – it was rhombus, with that enigmatic remote! kite landed by her groupmates, soon hit by the power of two. “ow,” she muttered, now immobilized.

rectangle approached his groupmates and clapped with glee. “good job, guys! …now where’s heptagon?”

should i tell them? octagon considered. i can just picture the look on that useless idiot’s face when he gets hit smack in it with the ball… it would serve you right, heptagon! but then it’d make me lose… so maybe i shouldn’t.

“we’re not telling,” she finally replied, sticking out her tongue. 

still behind the tree, circle took a second to think. “aha!” he exclaimed, weaving between the trees and emerging into the light. there was origin, placid and silent as always.

“hey!” circle called. “did you ever move the negatives from where they were before in the field?”

“nope,” origin replied softly. “they were still in the field when we started.”

“thanks!” circle gave him a thumbs up before rejoining his group. he then swiftly grabbed the power of two from heart and started running out of the forest with the negatives on his tail – parallelogram was holding the limbless kite as he ran.

“is pentagon secured?” rhombus asked, as they and the rest of the positives joined him. “she’s the fastest.”

“yeah!” square answered, holding a flailing pentagon up.

the crowd approached the field, and there was heptagon, sitting there with his eyes closed, completely unaware of his surroundings. or was he just ignoring them?

“c’mon heptagon!” kite yelled. “circle’s coming!” but heptagon, as usual, did not give any indication of even hearing her…

trapezoid reached out to try and grab circle, but he missed – and circle chucked the power of two down on heptagon! everyone collapsed around him as the game ended and the ball bounced away: the positives had won!

“THE GAME IS OVER!” mӧbius strip announced, holding a pair of scissors. “THE POSITIVES WON – SO GROUP TWO AND THE COOL KIDS ARE SAVED FROM ELIMINATION.” he furtively scooched towards origin, waving the scissors at him. “twinkle, put these away.”

origin sighed and acquiesced.

“does that mean…” oval started, his brow furrowing.

“NEXT TIME, A MEMBER OF YIM YUM OR HELVETICA WILL BE HISTORY.”

“h-history??” heart cried. “what happens when we’re eliminated?”

“THAT’S FOR ME TO KNOW AND FOR YOU TO FIND OUT.”

heart gulped nervously. 

what is that supposed to mean? he thought. what’s gonna happen to me if i get eliminated? or my teammates? oh my prime, why did star convince me into joining this show???

parallelogram was sitting beside heptagon with a sour expression. the limbless kite fell against him, and he smiled.

“we lost big-time, but i still had fun!” he said. “i guess you were right.”

“well, i guess i was!” kite smiled. “i’m glad.”

“but if heptagon would’ve participated, we might’ve had a chance of winning…” parallelogram muttered, glaring at him.

“hm… hey rhombus, could you give me my limbs back?”

…

in the dead of night, origin sat by the forest. watching. waiting. 

a fuschia figure flashed between the trees.

brrr… a camera lens appeared in origin’s center, focusing…

octagon found her pacifier sitting behind a tree. her eyes darted from side to side cautiously, before she finally grabbed it, wiped it off, and put it back in her mouth. 

then, as quietly as she came, she left.

it was time for trapezoid and pentagon’s nightly walk through the calm, dark forest edging the competition grounds; the air was still and brisk. the two had just left their cabin when a voice startled them.

“hey… can i join you?”

trapezoid looked back to see octagon in the doorway. “you want to go on a walk with us?”

“...yeah.”

“is that okay, pentagon?”

pentagon beamed. “yeah! of course!!!”

trapezoid smiled as well. “we’d love to have you, octagon. i’m glad you’re, you know, putting yourself out there…”

octagon glanced away. “don’t make a big deal out of it or anything,” she huffed. “it’s just a walk…”

“if you say so…!”

“what’s this about a walk?” hexagon piped up. “oh, didn’t expect to see you up so late, octagon. aren’t you usually tired in the morning?”

“it’s nothing,” octagon said behind clenched teeth. “i’m just joining trapezoid and pentagon on their walk. it’s nothing.”

“oh! …can i come too?”

so the four shapes left their cabin in the dead of night to traverse the forest together. it was cold out, but none of them felt it as it nipped at them; after all, they were all holding hands.

“have i ever told you the story of that one time i got kicked out of summer camp?” trapezoid asked as the group entered the woods.

“yes,” octagon said.

“but tell it again!” pentagon jumped in excitement.

“okay. so it was, what, ten years ago? i was going to the camp just south of geometropolis, i think it was called camp vertex or something. anyway i had an awesome, crazy counselor, his name was nonagon.”

“how was he crazy?” hexagon asked, knowing the answer. 

“well, one time nonagon almost lost our bunk in a museum, and one time he told us this story about how he went illegally ziplining somewhere? and every friday he would wear a ridiculous costume and dance around camp. he was insane, i have no idea how he didn’t get fired… so anyway, one day our bunk was supposed to have a scheduled activity, but the staff for it never showed up, so we were sitting around doing absolutely nothing. nonagon and the other counselor were supposed to come up with an activity for us to do in the meantime, but instead we just sat around.”

“so what did you do?” pentagon asked, grinning.

“well i had to go to the bathroom, so nonagon took me around to one of the buildings. and y’know, there was this golf cart sitting right outside with the key still in it. so i go to the bathroom and i come out, and nonagon’s like, “somebody left this key in the golf cart. anybody could just ride it.” and he winked at me! and y’know i was young and an absolute idiot so of course that seemed like the most awesome, crazy thing i could possibly do. so i got in the golf cart and started riding it around!”

pentagon giggled.

“what happened next?” octagon asked.

“so this thing was going all over the place, cuz i had no idea how to drive! it was swerving all over and guess what? i crashed it right into the camp director’s office!”

pentagon and hexagon burst into laughter. 

“oh my goodness,” octagon gasped, chuckling incredulously. she had heard this story before, yet it was just as unbelievable as the first time.

“so yeah, i was never able to go there again. but when they asked, i didn’t rat out nonagon – i just couldn’t! – so they never found out his part to play in that whole thing… i think he might be the camp director now, actually…”

“you didn’t tell us that before!” octagon laughed. “what the heck???”

helvetica kept on walking, the chill of the night kept away by the warmth of their banter.

“y’know, that reminds me of the time my principal at school caught me stealing mathematicookies from her office,” hexagon added.

“oh, so you were a little trouble-maker too!” trapezoid teased.

“was not!”

“you two should really not be so proud of yourselves.” octagon rolled her eyes affectionately. “pentagon’s gonna get ideas.”

“i’m gonna drive my teacher’s car into her classroom and steal all the snacks she hides from us!” pentagon cackled. “and when i get expelled i’ll say it was hexagon and trapezoid’s idea!!!”

“noooooo!!!!” trapezoid and hexagon both cried, before bursting into laughter themselves.

soon enough, trapezoid decided to head back to the cabin.

“we aren’t gonna walk longer?” pentagon asked.

“i don’t want octagon to lose too much sleep.”

“hey, it’s fine if you keep walking,” octagon replied. “i can just go back myself.”

“nope!” trapezoid said. “it’s too dark for you to go back alone. we’ll go together.”

“hey, i can go back with octagon,” hexagon offered. “the two of you can continue walking.”

“are you sure that’s fine?”

“of course.”

so hexagon accompanied octagon out of the forest and back to their warm and cozy cabin.

“just for the record,” hexagon pointed out as she sat in bed and strummed her ukulele, “i was a well-behaved kid. that cookie-stealing incident was a one-time thing.”

“sure.” octagon smirked.

“what, and you were a perfectly sweet little girl? i doubt it.”

octagon rolled her eyes and smiled. “so, um… what can you play on the ukulele?”

“i thought you’d never ask…” hexagon took a breath, grinned, and began to sing in a dramatic voice. “i swear i did not play hooky, i just want to eat a cookie~!”

octagon chuckled and continued hexagon’s song. “i am a girl who’s oh-so sweet, but i just want a little treat~!”

“not bad!” hexagon started strumming again. “please don’t take a lookie, inside your jar of cookies~!”

“for if you did you’d see that i have had a bite to eat~!”

the two collapsed in laughter.

“we should start a band,” hexagon said, lying down. “it’ll be called ‘the cookie criminals’.”

“‘the sweet stealers’.”

“‘the dessert delinquents’!”

octagon giggled and shook her head. “y’know what we should do? go to bed, for primes’ sake.”

“okay… good night, sweet girl…!”

“good night, cookie thief…”

…

square left his cabin early and went to the field; möbius strip was already there.

“i’m ready to be eliminated,” square said. “i know it’s me.”

möbius didn’t say anything. instead, he just waited for origin to appear.

“GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!” möbius screamed, waking the rest of the contestants up. “LET’S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“you seem to get louder every day, sir,” origin noted.

“aw, very kind of you to say so. OKAY,” he began, once the contestants had arrived, “IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER MEMBER OF GROUP TWO TO BE ELIMINATED…”

hexagon was busy showing her and octagon’s new song on the ukulele to trapezoid and pentagon, who found it hilarious. 

“STOP LAUGHING, YOU CRETINS!!!!!! I SAID IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER MEMBER OF GROUP TWO TO BE ELIMINATED…”

square stood with his hands on his hips. “enough with the fanfare, we all know it’s gonna be me. i made my team lose, after all.”

rectangle and triangle looked uneasy.

“AAAAAAAND THE NEXT ELIMINATED CONTESTANT IS RECTANGLE!”

“what?” all three members of group two gasped in unison.

rectangle started to tremble. “no. no. no. no! this can’t be it!” 

“rectangle.” square’s voice was faint. “oh my primes, rectangle!”

“this isn’t r-real, there has to be a mistake!” rectangle was crying now.

“LET’S GO, TWINKLE.” origin began to buzz with a sigh. triangle stared on in horror.

“rectangle, i’m so sorry,” square choked out. “i’m so sorry. i’m so sorry.”

rectangle stuck to origin. “square…” and he was gone.

“my brother…”

“AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS!” möbius announced. “ANOTHER ELIMINATION FRAUGHT WITH INTENSE EMOTIONAL DISTRESS!!!”

square glanced at triangle with wide eyes.

“ANOTHER CONTESTANT WRONGED BY THEIR FRIENDS BECAUSE OF A SILLY COMPETITION!!!!! ISN’T IT INCREDIBLE?”

triangle’s eyes widened as well. she inhaled sharply and fell to her knees.

origin reappeared with his camera lens after a few minutes of tense silence. 

“TODAY’S CHALLENGE IS A QUIET CONTEST. THE FIRST TEAM TO TALK IS UP FOR ELIMINATION. GO!”

heptagon and parallelogram found it easy enough to stay quiet; they had nothing to talk about. the two sat still, with heptagon staring at parallelogram, as he often did. parallelogram was looking over at group two.

square and triangle were dead silent. neither had moved an inch since rectangle’s sudden elimination. 

droplet walked over to star and sat next to him; she furrowed her brow and curled her legs up. star took a brief glance at her and looked away.

everything’s fine, he thought. droplet’s fine.

the members of helvetica were already condensed in a little group, and they were all busy thinking about the previous night’s misadventures. hexagon was miming the chords she had played on her ukulele.

“UGH, THIS IS SO BORING,” möbius groaned. “CAN YOU ALL PUT A LITTLE MORE LIFE IN YOUR SILENCE?”

“i can talk to you if you want,” origin suggested. “it’s good that they’re taking the challenge seriously.”

“sure, but i want ENTERTAINMENT! INTRIGUE!! DRAMA!!!”

“well, you did decide to host a reality show of all things. i guess i shouldn’t be too surprised…”

“whatever. what do you have to talk about?”

“well… the contestants in the paradox are doing quite well, sir. they don’t mind it there at all, i’d say.”

“good. how have they thought of the latest… happenings?”

“oh, in the challenges? they’ve found everything very… interesting to watch.”

“i see.”

origin glowed a bit. “they’ve started to form a little family in there. they are really getting along well!”

“darn…” möbius muttered.

“what?”

“nothing…”

“i think rectangle’s gonna do fine there, even if it takes a little while for him to settle. he’ll get to reunite with his friend circle, after all.”

“yeah, okay. whatever.” möbius clearly did not want to talk about this any further.

droplet was still curled up. star closed his eyes.

she never said anything was upsetting her today, so there’s nothing upsetting her. droplet’s fine, star. she’s fine. don’t worry over nothing.

then he felt shuddering. his eyes sprang open and he looked over to see droplet crying.

this isn’t nothing.

star looked at her and patted droplet’s hand. she looked up at him, her eyes shiny with tears. he smiled slightly at her, and she smiled slightly back; her smile quickly fell away into a frown. star continued to pat her hand…

“THIS IS INFURIATING!” möbius yelled. “I’M LEAVING. TWINKLE, KEEP AN EYE ON THE CONTESTANTS AND TELL ME WHO LOSES.”

“on it, sir!”

and with that, möbius left.

heptagon continued to stare at parallelogram. 

parallelogram had been looking at the other teams, when he finally turned back to notice heptagon’s gawking. 

he opened his mouth to yell when heptagon hit him in the face.

parallelogram blinked in shock and indignation, but softened. he smiled sheepishly.

“golly, you all are very good at this,” origin said. “hm…” he approached triangle and square. “hey, are you two okay?”

neither responded; neither even acknowledged origin’s presence.

“okay, i don’t really know what i was expecting…”

hexagon waved to origin; he came over. 

“yes?”

hexagon pointed to her ukulele and shrugged.

“oh, i guess you’re allowed to play that. it isn’t talking or anything.”

hexagon smiled, gave him a thumbs up, and strummed.

she began to play the chords to the cookie criminal song, and her teammates nodded along, grinning.

“for if you did you’d see that i have had a bite to eat~!” octagon sang with a chuckle. pentagon laughed as well.

“AAAAAND HELVETICA LOSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” möbius yelled, reappearing. 

octagon’s breath caught. “...oh my primes. no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO–”

now one of them was going to be eliminated. now helvetica was going to lose somebody.

“let’s–” hexagon started in a strained voice, “let’s go back to the cabin.”

trapezoid took her hand and pentagon’s. “octagon… are you coming?”

but octagon said nothing. 

the other three left without her.

heptagon was about to go back to his team cabin as well, when parallelogram said his name.

“hey, heptagon. thanks for hitting me back there… we almost lost cuz of me.”

heptagon’s eyes were teary. “o-of course.”

“but geez, dude! you gotta stop looking at me like that…”

star and droplet stood up.

“i see something’s been getting you down,” star murmured.

droplet sighed. “i just miss heart and rhombus…”

“me too… well, the competition won’t last forever. we’ll see them at some point.”

droplet smiled. “i guess you’re right. thanks, star.”

origin returned to triangle and square. “well, now that you two are allowed to talk… are you okay?”

square shook himself and stared at origin. “what do you think? my brother’s gone.”

“i’m sure he’s fine. he’s with your friend circle after all–”

“SHUT UP ABOUT CIRCLE!” triangle yelled. “i know i’ve been horrible, you don’t have to rub it in!”

and with that she stormed off. 

…

“hey, circle…”

“hey, rectangle.”

it had been a while since the two friends had seen each other. or had it? it had only been a few days, and yet it felt like forever…

“sorry about your elimination,” circle continued. “i know you really wanted to win.”

“yeah… but square thought this whole show was so terrible that he was willing to risk everything for the chance to be eliminated…”

“well…” kite pointed out, “this show has caused some… undue tension, to say the least.”

i guess she’s right, rectangle thought. because of this show i’ve argued with triangle practically every day, not to mention square – i never used to fight with square.

“but that tension can’t just come out of nowhere,” oval noted. “can it?”

“it certainly d-didn’t with star and i,” heart said. “our problems had been going on for years, it’s just that they only came to a head because of the show.”

“so what, are you saying that our friendship was never meant to last?” rectangle countered. “were we doomed from the start to end up hating each other?”

circle winced. “let’s just watch the challenge, okay?”

they proceeded to find it incredibly boring. möbius wasn’t wrong about everything…

“helvetica’s gonna mess up, aren’t they,” rhombus muttered. “they always look like they’re about to laugh.”

“i kinda hope they don’t,” heart murmured. “it’s comforting having the one team whose members don’t constantly scream at each other.”

“it’s bound to happen eventually.”

rectangle sighed as the camera panned over to square and triangle, who were frozen still in horror. should i take pride in the fact that they care more about my elimination than circle’s?

he glanced over at circle, who was frowning.

no. no i shouldn’t.

“heptagon seems very keen on not losing all of a sudden,” oval pointed out. “funny.”

“well, that’s kind of my fault,” kite said. “i’m just glad parry’s taking it as well as he is.”

“they’re all changing in one way or another.”

eventually, as rhombus predicted, helvetica lost.

“i know i’ve been wrong about a lot of things but sometimes being touchy-feely does genuinely make you more likely to lose,” rhombus said.

“and often the opposite is true,” rectangle muttered bitterly.

origin soon reappeared. “everyone’s favorite team finally lost… i’ll be sad to bring any of them here tomorrow.”

“just tell möbius there isn’t enough room in here,” oval suggested. “then you won’t have to.”

“but there’s always enough room in here! this place goes on forever!!!”

“darn.”

“even the one good team has gone sour…” kite said. “i feel like there really is something wrong here.”

“or something wrong with all of us,” heart mumbled.

“it’s a competition show!” origin said. “you shouldn’t feel bad about wanting to win or not wanting to win or whatever. that’s just how it goes.”

“but if it turns us into volatile, impulsive, over-competitive jerks?” rectangle cried. “or cold, mean, self-centered ones? is that ‘just how it goes’?”

“listen, rectangle–”

“i’m happy helvetica lost, because it shows that they actually enjoy each other’s company! i’m happy somebody here has the guts to actually be friends with people instead of treating them like garbage!”

“but what’s gonna happen now?” rhombus countered. “are the members of helvetica still gonna care about each other that much after this? after octagon made one of them get eliminated? they want to win, rectangle. there’s nothing immaculate about that.”

“so we should just accept it then? that this challenge is corrupting all of us? that being wronged by our friends because of a silly competition is normal and okay and great? is it always gonna end like this, where we all want each other dead?”

“ENOUGH!” circle yelled and sighed. “...listen. friendships end sometimes, but they don’t always have to. they certainly don’t have to end like this. triangle and square don’t have to be jerks. it’s their choice how they treat us. we weren’t wrong to be friends with them.”

“then what’s going to happen to helvetica?”

“you really should be asleep, y’know,” star murmured.

“i know,” droplet replied. “i can’t sleep though.”

the two shapes were sitting just outside their cabin. the night was dark and a gentle breeze was blowing. the faint rustle of leaves could be heard through the otherwise still silence.

“hm…” star blinked his half-lidded eyes. “hey, i never told you about what happened with me and heart, did i?”

droplet didn’t reply, just looked at him.

“you deserve to know, you know.”

“really? i haven’t done anything to help this team…”

star scoffed. “that is soooo not true. but even if it were, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a part of it.”

“...thanks.”

“right…” star took a deep breath. “y’know, i’m still shocked about it myself. i should’ve seen this whole thing coming, but i didn’t. even if heart would tell me about whatever he was worried about, he never called me out for not listening… but i guess i should’ve seen that myself.”

“so he finally got mad?”

“yeah… i mean, he had every right to be mad. now that i’m thinking about it, i’ve always done this. i’ve always told him to stop worrying and just, y’know, relax with me. that’s why i wanted us to sign up for this show, so we can just have fun together like we used to.”

droplet smiled. “well, you just want him to smile and be happy!”

“well yeah! i love the guy… but y’know, i can’t just turn his frown upside down without knowing why he’s frowning, right?”

“right…”

“i hope he’s doing okay in the paradox. he was so afraid of what it’d be like there.”

“another one of us is going there this morning,” droplet said slowly. “thanks to me…”

“droplet…”

“thanks for talking to me.” she stood up. “i need to go to bed now.”

with that, droplet went inside and went to bed. rhombus was sitting on their own bed, messing with their weird remote like usual. as droplet passed, they didn’t look up.

…

“HELLOOOOOOO MORTALS!!!!” möbius strip called. “WE’RE BACK TO EARLY RISING!!!!!!!”

the shapes dragged themselves in their fatigued stupor to the usual spot in the field; just like the morning before, origin was actually present. 

“time for the elimination?” star asked.

“YUP. THE COOL KIDS WILL BE MUCH COOLER TODAY… AS THE ELIMINATED CONTESTANT IS THE NERD!! HA!!!”

“you mean rhombus, right, sir?” origin asked.

“DUHOY.”

rhombus didn’t even bother to look at droplet; they just glared at star. “you know what?” they started. “i don’t blame droplet for this. i blame you, star, for trusting her and her stupid idea. that ruined it for me.”

star furrowed his brow. “i admit, i’ve done my fair share of damage. but if being genuinely nice to people for the first time in my life is wrong? i don’t want to be right.”

“...you’re not gonna last long.”

“i’ve lasted longer than you. tcch, say hi to heart for me…”

origin started buzzing; as rhombus’s limbs disappeared, they dropped their remote. 

droplet sighed.

“OKAY, WE CAN’T START THE CHALLENGE UNTIL TWINKLE COMES BACK,” möbius explained, “BUT I CAN AT LEAST EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.”

“please do!” rectangle exclaimed.

“TODAY’S CHALLENGE WILL BE A BAKE-OFF: YOU’LL ALL GET PLENTY OF NUMBERS AND OPERATIONS – USE THEM TO MAKE A DELICIOUS MATHEMATICAKE FOR ME TO JUDGE. YOU’LL HAVE AROUND AN HOUR AND A HALF TO FINISH.”

“aw man,” rectangle grumbled. “i suck at baking.”

“yes!” hexagon exclaimed. “i love baking!” she turned to her teammates. “is it fine if i lead this challenge?”

“oh, definitely,” octagon said. pentagon nodded.

trapezoid paused. he also loved baking. 

but she should get a chance to shine, he thought. “of course!” he smiled. 

origin soon reappeared. “you needed those numbers and operations, right sir?”

“YESIREE!”

origin glowed for a moment, and soon hundreds of symbols came flying out from his side. “you can use these to make your lovely desserts – and there should be an equal sign per team too, right?”

“YES INDEED! IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW, ONCE YOU’RE DONE ADDING EVERYTHING, YOU NEED TO PUT IT THROUGH THE EQUAL SIGN TO BAKE. I DON’T WANT ANY RAW NUMBERS.”

“ohhhhh,” square gasped. “that’s why rectangle’s homemade mathematicookies always taste so bad! they’re raw.”

“shut up,” rectangle muttered.

“OKAY… GO! …and twinkle, can you come here for a sec?”

“welp,” parallelogram said to himself as he headed over to pick up ingredients, “i guess it’s just me and me.”

“i’m right here,” heptagon cut in.

“just leave me be.”

“i want to help!”

“do you really?”

“please, parallelogram.” for once, heptagon’s voice was riddled with emotion. “please just let me help you.”

parallelogram regarded him with shock. “fine, whatever,” he muttered. “if you insist… here, carry some of these.” he handed heptagon a few of the numbers while he carried the rest. “i don’t want to give you too much to mess up…”

“so, what do you think we should bake?” star asked droplet. “a double-decker even mathematicake? a multicolor exponential?”

“it doesn’t matter what i think… i’ll just mess it up…” 

star clicked his tongue. “okay, well, then i guess i’ll take the lead. i’ll tell you what to do, okay?”

“fine, sure, whatever…” her mind was clearly elsewhere.

“so first we’ll need a pi, and a couple sine functions…”

meanwhile, hexagon was leading her own team. “okay gang, so how do you all want to help? i already have a recipe in mind.”

“i can be your baking assistant!” pentagon suggested. 

“me too!” said octagon.

“how about you, trapezoid?” hexagon asked.

i want to be her baking assistant as well, he thought, but i don’t wanna step on her toes… 

“i can just do prep and clean up,” he said.

“okay!” she faced the rest of the team. “so i wanna make a triple-triple-three mathematicake! it’s one of my personal favorites.”

“will we need a lot of 3s?” pentagon asked.

“oh yeah, for sure. you have three layers, each with three 3s. that’s…”

“nine threes in all,” octagon finished. 

“right. and we’ll need a whole bunch of parentheses and plus signs as well…”

“it’s only addition… then why do you need parentheses? it’s commutative anyway.”

“that’s the funny thing about baking,” hexagon said. “even if in regular math you can end up with the same result in a billion different ways, in this kind of math it’s the process that makes the biggest difference.”

“so the parentheses separate out each layer,” trapezoid continued. “for this type of cake, the overall contents would be the same without them, but you’d just get one really tall cake. there’s aesthetic value in splitting the cake in layers, which is why we add them.”

“hey, that’s right! have you baked before, trapezoid?”

“what? oh, um… no…!” trapezoid quickly went away to get the ingredients.

“twinkle,” möbius said, “could you please keep your camera on group two?”

“huh? why?”

“listen. i know you’re broadcasting the show to the eliminated contestants. i want them to see this.”

group two, like always, was arguing.

“square’s right for once,” triangle said. “you suck at baking, rectangle. let me do it.”

“hey, you’ve never even baked once in your life!” he countered. “even if my baking is bad, at least i’ve done it before! let me do it!”

“i’m gonna do it.”

“no, i’m gonna!”

“for primes’ sake!” square snapped. “can you two just cut it out for one second? you’re driving me insane!”

“i’m gonna make my own cake.”

“fine, me too!”

square rolled his eyes. we’re definitely gonna lose as it is, he mentally noted. still wouldn’t hurt to have a little secret self-sabotage down the line… anything to make sure i can get away from these two.

“you want them to see group two fighting for the billionth time?” origin asked.

“...yes,” möbius replied cryptically. “i think it’s… enriching.”

“okay…” origin replied, staying right in front of them…

at the same time, droplet was absent-mindedly handing star ingredients.

“square root symbol!” star requested, and droplet gave. “e! i! opening bracket! natural logarithm! …okay, that should be it!”

“mm,” droplet replied.

the two began to put the ingredients together. “okay, so we’ll take the natural log of pi times 37… pass me that 3, would you?”

droplet passed it to him. then she blinked and shook herself out of her thoughts. “...hey wait a sec, what in math are we doing?”

“what do you mean? we’re making a mathematicake.”

“but look at all these crazy ingredients!” she exclaimed, motioning to the bizarre operations scattered in front of them. “this cake will be terrible!”

“you sound just like rhombus,” star chuckled. 

droplet paused and sighed. “well, i… sorry, i just think this idea might be a little too…”

“a little too out there?”

“yeah…”

“wanna help me workshop it?”

“...what does that mean?”

“well,” star explained, “we’ll talk about the idea – what works, what doesn’t – and we’ll make whatever changes we need, and then it’ll be better!”

“so you can make your idea work?”

“so we can make it work.” he smiled. “together.”

parallelogram held a few numbers in his hands and shrugged. “i’ll be honest; i remember the ingredients for two-ten mathematicake but i do not remember the method.”

“i might know how,” heptagon said nervously.

parallelogram raised an eyebrow.

“i know it has 10 thin layers, each with a different power of two. i know we should use parentheses to separate the layers, each pair of parentheses containing 2 and an exponent.”

“...huh…”

heptagon bit his lip. will he listen?

“...i guess that makes sense,” parallelogram concluded.

heptagon exhaled. thank the primes.

“i’ll go get some more 2s, i’ll be right back. don’t mess anything up while i’m gone.”

möbius had long since moved on, so origin decided to move along himself, leaving group two’s drama behind him.

good progress was being made on helvetica’s triple-triple-three mathematicake: trapezoid got the ingredients, and hexagon was leading octagon and pentagon in combining them the right way. “remember pemdas!” she sang. “it’s all about the process.”

octagon put a 3 in a pair of parentheses. “i love baking!” she said. “it’s so orderly!”

pentagon put a plus sign next to it. “and i love baking because you get to throw a bunch of stuff together and make something yummy!”

octagon put another 3. “only if it’s in the right order.”

“right…”

“good work, everyone!” hexagon beamed. “you’re doing great. just tell trapezoid when you’re ready for the next pair of parentheses.”

“got it!”

trapezoid translated over to hexagon. “you’re great at this!” he exclaimed. “just a few minutes ago they had no idea how to bake at all, and now they’re experts!”

“just playing my part!”

trapezoid soon handed pentagon and octagon another pair of parentheses. “don’t forget to put a plus sign after the first pair before you put this one down.”

“oh, right!” hexagon piped up. “i almost forgot that part! thanks, bud… hey, you seem to know a lot about baking. why didn’t you want to help?”

trapezoid sighed. “well… you said you liked to bake, and i wanted to let you have your moment. i would’ve just… stepped all over you.”

“aw, i appreciate it… but you don’t have to do that for me. i want you to shine as well! …how about we lead together?”

hexagon smiled at him and he couldn’t help but smile back. “sounds good to me.”

droplet blinked at star. “so irrational numbers add flavor?”

“yeah,” he said. “they give the cake a certain… spice.”

“i guess the square root symbols make sense then… but i think maybe it’s a bit too complicated with logarithms and exponents too?”

“do you think the flavors would clash?”

“yeah.”

“maybe we should simplify things then… how about each layer has the square root of two plus pi?”

droplet nodded. “sounds good! and we can add an additional pi to the end of everything for that last little pop.”

the cool kids were the last to know what they were doing, but their idea was the most unique; the two quickly got started putting things together.

rectangle and triangle were busy making their own individual mathematicakes; neither knew any recipes, but at the very least rectangle knew how it was supposed to work. triangle just threw down a bunch of numbers and symbols. 

if there’s anything square knew about baking, though, it’s that adding a single additional 1 to the end of a recipe completely changes it. he grabbed two 1s and two plus signs and started sneaking towards his team’s equal sign.

“TIME’S RUNNING OUT, FOLKS!” möbius proclaimed. “TIME TO START PUTTING THINGS THROUGH THE EQUAL SIGN.”

helvetica was the first to start baking their cake, with trapezoid explaining the proper way to put it in the equal sign and for how long. 

parallelogram had been closely monitoring heptagon as he put the numbers and operations together; heptagon seemed to know what he was doing, but parallelogram was still dubious… 

heptagon soon put it in to bake.

“hm, it actually does smell nice,” parallelogram noted. heptagon smiled.

triangle and rectangle headed over to their equal sign, glowering at each other, where square was waiting. “i’ll put your cakes in for you,” he told them. before they could respond he took their cakes and put them through – not before sneaking in a +1 to each.

the cool kids were the last to put their cake in; droplet and star high-fived after doing so. 

“we did it!” star cheered. “this cake is gonna be great!”

“i hope so…”

“and thanks for your help! it really meant a lot.”

droplet smiled.

“OKEY DOKEY!!!” möbius boomed. “LET’S SEE IF YOUR CAKES HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!!!!!”

first helvetica presented theirs. möbius strip approached it and the cake seemed to noclip out of reality.

“THIS IS DELICIOUS! I WANT TO EAT IT AGAIN!”

origin buzzed and the cake appeared again. möbius touched it again, and it vanished like before.

“9/10 FOR HELVETICA! YUMMYYYY!!!!!!”

“yes!” hexagon smiled. “awesome job, everyone! especially you, trapezoid.”

trapezoid smiled back. “especially you, hexagon.”

“too bad we didn’t get to eat it…” pentagon mumbled.

next up was yim yum. möbius touched the cake.

“OH NICE. THIS IS GREAT CAKE. A CLASSIC! 7/10.”

“oh wow, that’s pretty good!” parallelogram was taken aback. he hadn’t expected heptagon to actually do well.

he made eye contact with heptagon. and for a moment, he smiled.

then the cool kids. like before, möbius approached their cake and made it glitch out of existence.

nothing.

“uh… möbius strip?” star asked uneasily.

“THIS IS THE BEST MATHEMATICAKE I HAVE EVER EATEN!!!!!!!!!!!” möbius strip screamed. “THE FLAVOR, THE AROMA, OH, I JUST WANT TO EAT IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND A–”

“that’s enough cake for you, sir,” origin butted in.

“YES!!! 100000000/10!!!!!! THE COOL KIDS WIN AT CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“woohoo!!!!!” star hooted. “we did it, droplet! we made my stupid idea work!”

droplet laughed, then paused. “hey, was this all meant to teach me a lesson about how being imaginative is great but that it can only work when grounded in reality?”

star blinked. “huh?”

“NOW TIME FOR THE LAST CAKE OF THE DAY…”

triangle and rectangle brought up their cakes.

“I SEE YOU HAVE TWO CAKES!”

“uhh, yes,” rectangle said. “that’s a… a good thing!”

“yeah!” triangle affirmed, knocking into him. “two cakes for the price of one! you should give us double points.”

“don’t push it.”

“LET ME TRY YOURS FIRST, TRIANGLE…” möbius made it disappear. “THIS IS… THIS IS GOOD! THE FLAVOR SEEMS SO… IT SEEMS SO GARBLED AND BAD AT FIRST, BUT THERE’S THIS SINGLE UNIFYING TANG AT THE END THAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER! WOW!”

square groaned. no, i accidentally made her cake better! darn!

triangle put her hands on her hips. “what’d i say, tango? i’m simply better than you at this.”

“he hasn’t even tasted mine yet!” rectangle protested.

“OH, YES!” möbius exclaimed. he touched rectangle’s cake and it vanished. “MMM, GOOD… HEY, EEUGH!!! WHAT’S THAT DISGUSTING AFTERTASTE??? THAT’S THE WORST THING I’VE EVER TASTED IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!”

rectangle was shocked. “w-what?”

square glanced at him.

“YOU KNOW WHAT? TRIANGLE’S CAKE WOULD’VE BEEN A 5/10; THIS ONE IS A -5! FOR A TOTAL SCORE OF 0/10, YOU GOSH DARN IMBECILES!!! IF THESE RECIPES WERE COMBINED MAYBE THIS WOULD’VE BEEN A CAKE THAT WAS EDIBLE FROM START TO FINISH!!!! GOOD DAY!!!!!!!”

möbius was so offended by the horrible cake that he left.

“um…” origin started awkwardly, “group two, you um, lost, by the way…” he then left as quickly as his boss.

rectangle’s brows knitted. “ugh, it… it’s all my fault…” he looked at triangle. “it’s all because of this dumb fight i started with you. if we’d have worked together, we would’ve had a decent cake…”

“you’re right,” triangle snapped. “you should’ve just let me take the lead, like always.”

rectangle sighed. 

“don’t blame yourself,” square told his brother. “it was probably just… a little something that accidentally got into your cake. it totally would’ve been fine otherwise.”

“what are you talking about?”

square bit his lip.

“square! that was you, wasn’t it?” triangle pointed at him. “you keep trying to sabotage our team!”

“this again?” rectangle gasped. “you said you’d stop!”

“hey, hey, i never promised anything,” square said defensively. “and this is for your own good, rectangle. you want to win; i don’t. we lose, i get out, and you have a higher chance of winning!”

“i don’t want you to get out, square! neither of us do!”

“i’m sure triangle wants me gone,” square retorted, “don’t you, triangle?”

triangle didn’t respond.

“and weren’t you mad at me yourself, rectangle? why do you want me to stay?”

“because you’re my brother!”

square stopped talking.

…

the empty white grid was filled with voices echoing out from its center –

“hey, how are you?”

“check this out!”

“i just miss them, okay?”

“still think my team’s gonna win.”

“darn, that sucks!”

– and rhombus did not enjoy it one bit.

“kite, how do you stand it here?” they asked.

“what do you mean?” their cousin replied. “it’s pretty chill.”

“everyone’s either screaming or crying or talking about something completely insignificant. it’s driving me crazy!”

“sorry not everyone’s as above-it-all as you are, rhombus. this… this is nice.”

“they’re all just distracting themselves. i say we try and find a way to escape this place so we can–”

“did you even say hello to heart yet?”

rhombus was taken aback. 

“okay, folks, gather round,” circle called over his fellow eliminated contestants.

“what’s it gonna be this time?” heart asked. rhombus was surprised – he seemed so… calm.

“i bet it’s gonna be a baking challenge,” kite teased, nudging oval.

“what! i love baking!” oval cried. “don’t you jinx it–”

“TODAY’S CHALLENGE WILL BE A BAKE-OFF…”

“noooooooooooooo!!!! how dare he do that without me!!!!!!”

the other shapes laughed, heart among them.

eventually, they were subjected to watching triangle and rectangle fight. for the billionth time.

“i want to punch them both in the face so bad,” circle groaned. “they used to be so close!”

“well, y’know what they say,” heart noted morosely, “keep your enemies closer…”

“it’s like… they turned the dial on friendship so far that it circled around and became animosity,” kite suggested.

“darn,” circle said. “sounds about right…”

“that’s just what this competition has been doing to people, i guess…”

the broadcast lingered on group two for an uncomfortably long time before moving on.

they saw helvetica succeed. they saw parallelogram accept heptagon’s help – even if begrudgingly. they saw star and droplet make an awesomely stupid and stupidly awesome cake.

“y’know, i still don’t forgive star for what he did to me,” heart murmured, “because he hasn’t been able to apologize yet. but i know i will forgive him someday.”

rhombus lingered near him, uneasy. they didn’t know what to say… they didn’t even know what to think. and rhombus always knew what to think.

“oh, hey rhombus!” heart moved towards them. “it’s been a while since we’ve properly t-talked…”

rhombus paused. “...i don’t think we’ve ever properly talked. i don’t think i’ve ever properly talked to anyone.” their voice was strained and uncomfortable.

“...well, things can change! i’m not-very good at talking to other people myself, but… here we are. so let’s start over: n-nice to meet you, my name is heart, and i believe we started on the wrong foot. what’s your name?”

“my name is rhombus and i… i’m sorry.”

“for what?”

sweep, sweep, sweep... dust, dust, dust... pace, pace, pace.

“i think this is good enough...” heart sighed in exhaustion and flumped onto one of the chairs by the window. he had just been cleaning his team’s cabin for the fifty-billionth time that night, and it finally seemed tidy enough for him.

for a while, heart just sat there and thought; to document everything he was thinking of would be hard, given how busy his mind tended to be.

a knock on the door shook heart from his thoughts rather violently - he started and fell out of the chair, with a yelp of “d-diamonds and spades! what was that?”

another knock answered his question, and heart exhaled slowly. he approached the door and opened it, to see a very tired-looking trapezoid.

“hey, heart, if you’re done with the–” he yawned. “if you’re done with the cleaning supplies, is it okay if i take them back for now? if you ever need them again, you can just ask, of course.”

heart stepped back and let him in. “o-oh, oh yeah, sure!” he started by grabbing the broom and dustpan leaning near the table and handing them to trapezoid.

“thanks bud. y’know, i’m surprised no one else has asked me for them.” trapezoid also picked up the bottle of window cleaner that was near the door.

“oh?”

“yeah... these cabins aren’t the best, you’d imagine everyone would want to tidy them up.”

heart chuckled. “yeah... i don’t get how anyone could live anywhere so disorganized. and dusty.”

“i know, right? that’s the one thing me and octagon can agree upon.”

heart smiled. trapezoid patted him on the shoulder. “you’re a good kid, heart,” he said at length. “look out for your teammates, ‘kay?”

trapezoid soon departed, and heart sighed happily. he turned around to face his sleeping teammates, to find star glaring right at him.

…

origin was flying back and forth, much to the annoyance of möbius strip.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” he asked.

origin turned to show some papers and a pencil. “i’m writing the contestants personalized invitations to wake up, like you suggested yesterday. see, i made kite’s invitation a poem, because she told me she likes–”

“DID YOU MAKE ME AN INVITATION?”

origin broke out in cold sweat. “n-no, i–”

“GOOD. NOW DELIVER THOSE SOON, MAILMAN! I WANT TO START THINGS BRIGHT AND EARLY.”

möbius turned and flew off.

soon enough, origin finished his invitations and placed them by the door of each cabin, knocking on the door with a manifested hand as he did so. afterwards, he flew north and flashed into the paradox again.

möbius strip arrived to the field to see his 15 contestants arranged in it; but no origin.

“TWINKY-DINK! WHERE DID YOU GO?”

unfortunately, despite all of his yelling, there wasn’t actually anything möbius could do to bring origin back from where he obviously was - the paradox. in his frustration, möbius strip grumbled for approximately 5 minutes.

“i’m bored,” pentagon said after a while, frowning. “what are we doing?”

möbius coughed. “WE’RE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO GET BACK, SOMEONE WHOM WE NEED TO START THE CHALLENGE.”

after a moment, square asked rectangle, “why do we need to do the challenge so early, anyway? can’t we just do something else until twinkle gets back?” rectangle thought this was a good question to ask möbius himself, and suggested such to his brother.

square begrudgingly repeated the question, marginally louder than the first time.

“well, i want to do it now,” triangle challenged, before möbius could answer. “i don’t wanna have to wait to do a challenge.”

“but this early? we’re all tired,” square sighed.

“speak for yourself.”

“HOW ABOUT DON’T SPEAK AT ALL?” möbius strip retorted. “WE HAVE TO DO IT NOW BECAUSE I’M ALWAYS BUSY IN THE AFTERNOON.”

“tcch, with what?” triangle asked.

möbius didn’t reply. the group proceeded to sit around until origin returned.

“do you really think so?” kite mused to parallelogram. “i mean, i suppose it does go on a case-by-case basis, but surely the possibility of it happening at all should be acknowledged...”

“well sure, but it’s not like that whole genre should be taken off of the market just because of the possibility of someone replicating the actions of people in the game. that’d be kinda stupid, to be honest.”

“yeah, yeah, i agree, but again it really depends. most people will know the actions of those characters are wrong, and so will refrain from taking up after them, but in some cases it’s vague enough that people could find its presence in the game to be justification for doing it in real life.”

“absolutely. and those people should just get help, is what i say. oh yeah, and if the game frames those actions as being good, then that’s definitely subject to criticism. that’s what could contribute to the vagueness you’re talking about.”

“of course.”

“will they not just shut up?” octagon groaned, peering at kite.

hexagon patted her shoulder. “don’t worry, i think they’re done for now.”

a moment passed.

“did you ever come up with a good answer to the trolley problem?”

octagon facepalmed.

meanwhile, heart was playing patty-cake with droplet.

“why don’t you play patty-cake with me, heart?” star nudged him.

heart blinked. “...i didn’t know you liked playing patty-cake.”

“really? cuz i always have...”

heart furrowed his brow.

another half hour passed before origin finally reappeared. he seemed to have some kind of ...camera lens in his center.

“THANK THE PRIMES YOU DECIDED TO GRACE OUR HUMBLE PRESENCE,” möbius snapped. “I’M HONORED YOU DECIDED TO SHOW UP.”

origin sighed. “sorry, möbius strip... i was busy setting something up.”

“AND APPARENTLY THAT WASN’T THE GOALS FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGE. LET’S GET GOING.”

the two moved over to a different part of the field.

“OKAY, TWINKIE, SOCCER GOALS.”

origin moved back a bit. “...sorry, sir, i can’t do that right now...”

“OH, CUZ OF YOUR DUMB CAMERA. CAN’T YOU PUT IT AWAY FOR NOW? WE NEED THE GOALS.”

“...sorry, not now.”

“THEN WHAT? WE CAN’T PLAY SOCCER WITHOUT SOCCER GOALS.”

“...could we use something else?”

“LIKE WHAT?”

origin thought for a second, then went over to whisper his idea to möbius strip.

“don’t see why you needed to whisper that, but okay,” möbius conceded. “HELLO, CONTESTANTS! COME HITHER, IF YOU MAY,” he called.

the 15 shapes came over to the two of them.

“NOW: HELVETICA, GO TO ONE SIDE OF THE FIELD, WITH A SPACE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR LITTLE GROUP, THERE YOU GO, AND COOL KIDS, DO THE SAME ON THE OTHER SIDE.”

they did such, even if they didn’t know why. pentagon and trapezoid stood together with a little gap between them and the other two, octagon and hexagon; star and heart were apart from droplet and rhombus.

“NOW, GROUP TWO AND YIM YUM, GO ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE FIELD. THE OTHER TWO TEAMS WILL ACT AS THE GOALS, THE BALL KICKED BETWEEN THEM. IT’S SOCCER TIME. NO GOALIES. 7 MINUTES PER ROUND.”

“but wait!” kite interjected. “our team only has three members. will it really be fair for us to go up against the other four-membered teams?”

triangle scoffed. “well, you’re tall, surely that counts for something.”

“not really, no,” parallelogram answered sharply. “i think any team opposing us should have a player sit out.”

möbius thought for a second. “SURE, WHATEVER.”

“then square, buddy,” triangle nudged him. “have a nice nap.”

he gave her a thumbs up and flopped down away from the game.

“guess i’ll just have to play harder, then,” triangle rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

“now go!” origin rolled the ball over to yim yum’s side, before moving to spectate just north of the game.

kite ran north to kick the ball, but missed. triangle ran and kicked it south, towards heptagon. when he didn’t even try to move, parallelogram had to run and intercept it before it could enter the goal.

“nice save, parry!” kite smiled, dribbling it towards the other side. she booted it towards the goal.

parallelogram simply frowned at heptagon.

“it’s comin’ in hot! i got this one, folks!” triangle punted the ball sharply, sending it flying back towards the other team.

“y’think we can double team it?” kite quickly asked parallelogram.

“we can try,” he grunted, kicking the ball north to her before she struck it and sent it barreling towards the other side. “but it’d be nice if we could pull a triple...” he raised an eyebrow at heptagon, who was still standing there motionless.

“i got it, i got it!” rectangle called, running over to get the ball. it was intercepted, however, by triangle.

“your kick would’ve been too weak. your foot was at the wrong angle…” triangle dribbled and kicked it hard. “and that, tango, is how you kick a ball.”

as it went rushing across, rectangle blinked in surprise. “oh... okay.”

“c’mon, heptagon!” kite nudged him. “we believe in you!”

the ball simply passed him and scored a goal for group two.

“oh, come on!” parallelogram groaned.

“that’s a point for group two! you got a minute left, folks.”

“we gotta get another point. i’ll handle this one, boys,” triangle snapped her fingers as the ball was rolled to her. she ran with it towards yim yum’s side before her teammates could reply.

“we should give heptagon another try!” kite suggested.

parallelogram disagreed. “we can’t count on him. doing that will win triangle another point.” he shuffled around the goal.

“no babysitting!” triangle exclaimed.

circle frowned as triangle continued to steal every shot. rectangle kept smiling in anticipation as the ball came towards him, but unfortunately, he never got the chance to kick it.

at the end of the round, group two won, 5 to 2.

“in your vertex!” triangle laughed triumphantly. “we did great, guys. i just know we’ll win this.”

“OKAY, THAT’S ONE WIN FOR GROUP TWO AND ONE LOSS FOR YIM YUM,” möbius announced absentmindedly. “NOW THE COOL KIDS AND HELVETICA ARE UP. THE OTHER TWO TEAMS, BE THE NET.”

as group two went over to be a goal, square looked to rectangle. “you had fun?”

“oh, um... i didn’t get too many chances to kick the ball...”

“i see...”

“b-but it’s fine! we won.”

“oh really?”

square glared at triangle, but she didn’t seem bothered at all, and proceeded to watch the other teams play.

“heart, work with me!” star called. “we can do... what did they call it? ‘double team’?”

“oh um, if you want...” heart kicked the ball to star tentatively, who swung his leg up with great force. he closed his eyes and smiled proudly.

“i know, i know, you’re in awe, but please, let’s continue the game.”

heart’s eyes were wide, but not in awe; star had completely missed the ball, which was still by his feet. heart opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing, simply glaring at his best friend.

the round proceeded with fervor; hexagon and pentagon had apparently come up with a clever strategy in which hexagon would gently kick pentagon forwards, so pentagon could kick the ball into the goal with increased velocity.

these ‘five-and-a-halfers’ were hard to fight against, considering how none of the cool kids were particularly athletically inclined. rhombus did manage to score a few points by strategically removing and replacing people’s limbs, which technically wasn’t prohibited in the game rules.

droplet came up with many fantastical strategies of her own, which heart tried to accomplish, but unfortunately, those such as the ‘magical rainbow flyer’ never came to fruition. likewise, octagon’s attempts to calculate where the ball would end up came back to bite her – all of these other strategies and missteps made this round extremely unpredictable, and her time calculating was in vain.

trapezoid was there for moral support. also for arguing.

in the end, the teams tied at 5 points each, counting as a win for both.

rounds came and went; all four teams had something up their sleeves, whether that be impeccable agility, genius strategy, or simply access to a limb remote.

the next game was helvetica vs. group two; at this point, helvetica’s ‘five-and-a-halfers’ made them feared on the field. octagon and trapezoid might argue about where the both of them thought the ball would end up, but one of them was always right, meaning that hexagon and pentagon almost always hit it. and their soccer balls were like meteorites.

on the other side was triangle, however, and she wasn’t to be messed with either. she went fast and she went hard; she was ruthless. no ball could escape her ‘pythagorean fear-em’. when balls came, she hit them; and when square persistently reprimanded her for taking over the team, she ignored him. nothing could stop her.

those in the goals chattered in anticipation for the fabled match between two legends – a strategical mastermind and a brute-strength behemoth. nobody knew who was going to win.

when the ball was rolled, it began. hexagon instantly kicked it up north to pentagon, who dribbled it over to the other side. circle shuffled over to intercept it, but triangle swept in and booted it.

“really, triangle?” square sighed. “now’s not the time to be cocky.”

“i’m not being cocky. i’m just playin’. go hard or go home, that’s what i always say.”

“then maybe you should stop talking...” square said under his breath.

pentagon came back with the ball, and rectangle was preparing to kick it from her – but here was triangle, rolling it away with the flick of her foot. “you gotta be faster than that!”

after pentagon passed her the ball, hexagon began to bounce it on her knee. “it’s as if we’re playing against one person!”

octagon looked up at her. “you thinking what i’m thinking?”

hexagon smiled. octagon glanced over to the northern part of group two’s field, in the back, and subtly nodded to hexagon. pentagon ran over to that empty spot, and hexagon swiftly kicked the ball towards her.

“move move move!” triangle tried to shove her way through her teammates. instead, square, who was only a little ways away, casually kicked the ball south, out of pentagon’s reach.

“what was that for?” triangle glared at him, sending the ball back over. “why didn’t you move? you could’ve missed!”

“so could you.”

“but i’ve won us so many games!”

“not all of them.”

“those were exceptions!”

“man, they were able to hit it after all,” trapezoid bit his lip as pentagon sidled back to their side. “at least square was. i think we should hit near the other back corner.”

“no way!” octagon shook her head. “near the front is the way to go. circle and rectangle haven’t kicked the ball the entire game!”

“true...”

“okey dokey!” pentagon chirped, being flung north by hexagon, up to the ball. “get pent!”

she kicked it into the front, where it landed right on circle’s head.

“what do i do, what do i do?” rectangle cried, shuffling around him. triangle and square were too busy arguing to notice.

“hey, guys!” circle ran towards his two fighting friends, and the ball flew off of his head. as it fell, rectangle swiped his foot underneath to kick it. and while he got a good start, there was no one to back him up – and hexagon intercepted it with a mighty drive, getting an easy goal.

“ow!” star exclaimed as the ball hit him in the face.

“a point for helvetica!” origin announced. he could’ve made a comment on group two’s rough shape, but decided against it.

as the ball was rolled to helvetica’s side, triangle pushed her way towards it.

“get out of the way, square,” she snapped. “your brother can’t even kick a soccer ball straight.”

“maybe if you bothered to let him play, he’d know how to by now.”

“guys! the game!” circle called out. “let’s have fun, okay?”

the game continued, helvetica scoring point after point. triangle got a few in, but half of the time she was stifled by a bothered square who didn’t want her to play if it meant she’d take over again.

“one minute remaining, folks,” origin edged back from the ruckus.

“oh yeah?” triangle yelled. “i’ll show you a minute!”

she then proceeded to shove square to the side and hit the ball towards hexagon’s face.

“whoa!” hexagon jumped out of the way, which sent pentagon, who was standing over her head, flying forward.

fortunately for the two of them, however, trapezoid kicked it through to pentagon, who, while flying forwards, was able to kick the ball into the goal behind triangle.

“what the hex!” hexagon smiled. “how did we do that?”

pentagon returned to her and stuck out her tongue. “dunno. but that’s a ‘five-and-two-thirds’, to be sure.”

“and that’s game!” origin announced. “helvetica wins with 7 to 4! great job!”

“for prime’s sake!” triangle cried. “okay, you wanna play soccer? fine! then i won’t do anything next round.”

“...we’re not up next round...” rectangle said.

“you see how this team works without a triangle! the strongest shape!”

“not the strongest in strategy, though,” square said nonchalantly, heading over to the other side of the field. “that completely failed.”

“oh shut it! at least i did something!”

he didn’t dignify her with a response.

circle frowned as triangle stormed off. he wanted to talk to her, but he knew nothing he said would help.

“hey, rectangle?” he called.

rectangle turned to him from where he stood. “yeah?”

“can you try and talk to triangle?”

he pointed to himself, surprised, “m-me?”

“you two are so close! i’m sure she’ll listen to you.”

“oh, but, i’ve got to be part of the goal...”

circle started pushing him from behind. “c’mon, buddy! it’s now or never.” rectangle acquiesced and went after triangle.

the round between helvetica and yim yum was taking place – much more quietly than the previous one – and kite and parallelogram were finding it hard to fight. hexagon was sitting out, sure – but trapezoid was acting as pentagon’s support now, and he wasn’t too bad himself.

“we gotta step up our game!” parallelogram wiped sweat off of his brow. the opposing team had already scored a point. he kicked the ball north  to kite.

“i know!” kite panted, sending it back. “i think–”

“i know what you think, kite,” he smiled at her. “and yes, it’d be nice if heptagon would be a ‘helptagon’ instead. but we can’t rely on it.” he passed her the ball around star.

“okay, yeah.”

“and i doubt talking about him in the third person will do any good in convincing him.”

kite scored a goal, avoiding heart and rhombus. “good point.”

parallelogram and kite worked surprisingly well as a pair; kite could cover the ball up north, parallelogram could cover the ball down south, and both were relatively fast, so as long as they knew where the ball was headed, they got just about everything covered.

unfortunately for them, they often didn’t – pentagon had a new schtick with trapezoid, called ‘pentamonium’. in this move, the two of them would create such a scuffle with legs and jumping and balls and blades of grass that you couldn’t possibly tell where the soccer ball was unless you were staring right at it.

some of the time, they did happen to spot the ball; most of the time, they didn’t, landing helvetica an easy goal. kite and parallelogram could manage for the most part, but without backup, it was hard to truly cover the field.

“i wish octagon weren’t so good at calculating where the ball’s headed,” parallelogram noted. “it makes it so hard to get anything through.”

“true,” kite reciprocated. “but as trapezoid’s working with pentagon now, he can’t work to fix her mistakes. so her guess isn’t guaranteed to be accurate.”

“what does that leave us?”

“half of the time? we’re fine. the other half? pentamonium. easy point for them.”

“so how do we make it harder for octagon to track us? i’m not good at strategy.”

the two kept kicking until a voice called from behind.

“maybe if you stop being so predictable, octagon wouldn’t be able to predict where the ball’s headed.”

heptagon was staring tiredly at them.

“oh? what should we do?” parallelogram called back.

no response was given.

“think, think, think, parry! what to do...?”

and suddenly, he had an idea. “aha! let’s keep switching places, back and forth!” he whispered.

kite and parallelogram switched places on the field, and again, and again, and again! they became a blur as they ran north to south and back again, their legs a flurry of movement.

“huh?” octagon gasped. “what’s going on?”

and suddenly the ball hit her in the face.

now it was confusion vs. confusion. points were scored all over the place, because the teams could barely see where the ball was or where it was going. but in the time that helvetica was still getting used to the bizarre new playing field, yim yum was able to catch up.

meanwhile, while chaos was reigning free on the field, rectangle was catching up with triangle.

“h-hey, triangle!” he called.

she stopped abruptly, causing rectangle to bump into her.

“hey, tango. not so good at kickin’ balls, are we?”

rectangle chuckled sheepishly. “nah. you remember what i was like in gym class... yikes. b-but anyway, you should probably come back.”

“why? square doesn’t want me to play.”

“no, it’s not that he doesn’t want you to play, it’s just that he wants all of us to play. together.”

triangle snorted. “now that just sounds sappy. i’m part of ‘all of us’, aren’t i?”

“sure, of course.”

“then he should just let me play! c’mon tango, let’s go back.”

rectangle and triangle made their way back to the field; nothing was really resolved, even if triangle made it seem that way. but there was no time for any more dialogue, as when they got back to the game, the round was finishing up - and it was entropy incarnate.

“where’s the ball?”

“i don’t even know what a ball is anymore!”

“is the ball even on the field?”

“what did i kick just now? what was that?”

“that was my face, idiot.”

“aaaaaah!”

the round finished up with the strangest conclusion; yim yum won, 12 to 11. it was so close to being a tie, if not for kite tripping and sending the ball into the goal at the last second.

“you managed to be even more bonkers than pentagon!” trapezoid said in awe in the game’s aftermath. “now that’s impressive.”

“hey, at least we were unpredictable!” parallelogram smirked. he turned to face the rest of helvetica. “good game! but at the same time… ‘get pent’.”

there were friendly chuckles throughout.

“thanks for the help, heptagon!” kite smiled at her teammate. he glanced at her, but didn’t reply.

the last round was the cool kids vs. group two - and then möbius strip would finally conclude the rowdy day of soccer balls and kicks and bizarre strategies.

“okay, this shouldn’t be too hard,” rhombus shrugged as they came to their team’s side of the field. “they have so many weak spots it’s hilarious.”

“how can you tell?” droplet asked, climbing up over their head.

“observation, my little friend. seeing what actually happens and taking it to heart is a big help. a whole lot more useful than conjecture, anyway.”

droplet simply blinked at them in response.

“and... go!” origin rolled the ball to their side.

heart started up with a double team with star; he knew how little star actually cared about the game, and so easily (and resignedly) covered his friend when he inevitably missed the ball. he kicked it rather gracefully to droplet, who was the other side.

“one of you get it already! sheesh!” triangle yelled when her teammates didn’t take any action. “you wanted to play, so play!”

rectangle hurried up to the ball and managed to roll it out from under droplet’s foot. he kicked it as hard as he could.

“don’t be so snippy with him,” square grunted.

“i’ll be as snippy as i like, thank you very much.”

the ball came over, and droplet backed up to get it – she hopped and kicked the ball. it barely made it to the other side of the field, and triangle alone rushed to reach it.

“c’mon, c’mon – ugh!” her own kick wasn’t very strong, and angrily turned back to her teammates. “why do you insist on me letting you guys play if you don’t do anything?” rhombus rushed over and passed it to heart, who scored a goal.

“they’d know what to do if you helped them!” square yelled back. “you never help them!”

“why do they need to be helped? i don’t need to be helped!”

“not everyone is you, for geometry’s sake!”

“guys!” circle cried. “please!” he got the ball and kicked it far out onto the other side of the field.

“for crying out loud, square! i already know!”

“then act like it!”

“how about you stop acting so obtuse!”

“guys!” circle had to deal with intercepting the balls every time now, as his friends couldn’t see past their quarrel – even the uninvolved rectangle was entangled in their mess. “please help me!”

“you’re calling me obtuse? i’m just trying to stand up for my brother! he’s always been the closest to you, and i keep having to worry you’ll upset him – just like yesterday! if anything, you’re obtuse!”

“i’m clearly acute!”

“and i am literally right!”

“i don’t need protecting!” rectangle frankly looked offended. “if i didn’t want to be friends with triangle, i wouldn’t be!”

“then maybe you shouldn’t!” square glared at him.

“you don’t have the right to pick who i’m friends with!”

“and neither of you should have the right to be so annoying!” triangle countered. “i’ve had to deal with the two of you since day one, and what do i get in return?”

“hopefully someone who cares about you,” rectangle looked over at her, hurt.

“but is that the case? i don’t know!”

“are you kidding me?”

“guys!” circle cried again.

zap! thud.

“woop, and there’s another point for the cool kids,” origin said hesitantly. “hm.”

circle was now limbless and motionless, the ball sitting in the goal behind him. he sighed and frowned where he sat.

“if you guys won’t play, i will!” triangle insisted. she kicked the ball sharply.

“how do i tolerate you?” square grumbled.

triangle continued kicking the ball back as it came, frequently going over on the offense despite the risk. heart was starting to fail to make up for star’s overconfidence (much to heart’s dismay), so his kicks were a little easier to counter now.

“c’mon, star–” heart eyed him, with a panicked edge to his voice. “i don’t think you need to be posing right now...”

“but don’t i look cool?”

“sure, but that’s not... that’s not important right now, star! please!”

star shrugged. heart sighed a shaky sigh.

droplet’s gentle kick was actually great for the strategy – having the kick only barely move the ball made it easy for a teammate to follow it up, even if it was easy to intercept. she was able to work very well with rhombus and heart.

not so much with star, but she didn’t pay attention to that.

the game was closing off, and the cool kids were clearly winning. they kept on getting points because triangle was the only one on her team really playing. triangle kept kicking harder and harder out of spite, edging farther into enemy territory, but, despite the opposing team’s lack of experience, her balls were always easily intercepted.

the game finished and the cool kids obviously won, 6 to 0. it was kind of pathetic – or at least triangle thought so. she felt betrayed by her teammates – her friends.

“OKAY, EVERYONE, TIME TO ANNOUNCE SCORES,” möbius said drily. all of the shapes followed him back to the main field – all but circle, who, without limbs, was unable to translate anywhere.

when they got there, octagon instantly had a question. “how will the scores be tallied?”

möbius strip yawned. “FIRSTLY, IT’S YOUR TOTAL POINTS FROM EVERY ROUND. ALL OF THOSE ARE ADDED UP. THEN, YOU GET A POINT ADDED FOR EVERY GAME YOU WON, AND A POINT REMOVED FOR EVERY GAME YOU LOST.”

“yikes!” heart gasped, envisioning every shot star missed. he shook with fear.

“OKAY, SO... THE TEAM WITH THE HIGHEST SCORE IS HELVETICA.”

“nice!” hexagon and pentagon jumped for joy.

trapezoid rubbed his chin. “but what’s our score?”

“YOU HEARD HOW THE SCORES WERE COUNTED. FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF.”

“but–”

“I’M TOO TIRED FOR THIS. ANYWHO...... THE TEAM WITH THE SECOND HIGHEST SCORE IS YIM YUM.”

parallelogram nudged kite playfully. “i guess being tall did come in handy.” she chuckled sheepishly in response.

heptagon even managed a half-smile.

“okay, okay... AHEM,” möbius grabbed everyone’s attention again. “NOW IT’S DOWN TO THE BOTTOM TWO, GROUP TWO AND THE COOL KIDS.”

“oh i know we lost...” heart whimpered. “star…”

“WHO’S GONNA BE SAFE? WHO’S GONNA BE UP FOR ELIMINATION?” möbius strip sang. “OOOOH... hey twinkle, give me a drumroll.”

no response.

“gone again? i swear, if he’s in the paradox... ANYWHO, THE COOL KIDS ARE SAFE, AND GROUP TWO IS NOT! WHOOPS! GUESS YOU FOLKS ARE UP FOR ELIMINATION!”

“really?” heart gasped. “we didn’t fail miserably?”

“hooray!” droplet clapped happily. “we didn’t fail miserably! ...what does ‘miserably’ mean?”

meanwhile, group two had failed miserably. square didn’t care about losing the challenge, he was just upset at triangle. rectangle didn’t mind much either; he was just offended by his brother.

and triangle? i think that mess revealed itself.

she faced square. “we lost the challenge! all thanks to you! i hope you feel proud of yourself.” and then she stormed off to their team’s cabin.

“i’m not the one who should be worried about pride,” he replied darkly.

as this was going down, heart watched pensively and sighed. soon enough, star approached and grabbed his hand.

“yikes, buddy, your hand is sweaty!”

heart stared at him, paused, then chuckled sheepishly. “not much i can do about that...”

“well, you can stop worrying so much! goodness gracious, you were so on edge today for no reason – you should’ve just had fun with me!”

star looked at him tenderly, but when heart looked into his eyes, he couldn’t help but see his steely gaze from that morning. 

…

“hey, you okay?”

circle looked out to see origin flying in from the east. “oh, you came back for me!”

origin didn’t have the camera lens in his center anymore... odd.

“yeah...” origin said. “are you okay? that game was... pretty rough...”

circle chuckled sadly. “you could certainly say that...”

origin lowered south towards him. it was kind of awkward, origin sitting next to circle, considering the size difference between them.

“i could take you back to your cabin whenever you’d like. but if not we could just sit here... if that’s okay with you, of course...”

circle smiled up at him. “i’ll sit for a bit with you. but i’ll want to go back to the cabin eventually...”

so, the two sat there together in the field, talking periodically, but leaving plenty of time for the evening’s quiet.

“you really want to try again? do you think it would work?”

“well, i have to try. the four of us have been friends forever, i don’t want to give up on that now!”

“yeah, you’re right... y’know, circle... a triangle might be the ‘strongest shape’, but i’d say you’re the strongest friend i’ve ever met.”

moments passed.

“i think i’ll go back now,” circle said all of a sudden. “don’t want them to miss me, right?” he smiled.

origin couldn’t smile back, as he had no face, but he seemed to be smiling somehow anyway. “okay... i’ll give you back your limbs once you get there.”

he started buzzing and circle stuck to him; and buzzing he went towards the cabin.

when he got there, origin released circle, who magically regained his arms and legs as he landed – unusual. circle stood up and shook out his limbs. “hey twinkle!” he called.

origin edged closer. “sorry, my name’s origin.”

“oh. that’s a lovely name!”

“thank you. what was it?”

“oh yeah… i thought you could only remove limbs. like when you do the buzzy-thing. since when could you replace them?”

origin chuckled. “since always! but i don’t like using my line-making power much... so i usually use the grapher. and i don’t really know where that is. but hey, i’m willing to use my powers for you.”

“oh,” circle blinked at him. “okay, cool! thank you so much! good night!!” and then he entered his cabin.